Primary alcohol producing organisms

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having at least one exogenous gene insertion and/or one or more gene disruptions that confer production of primary alcohols. A method for producing long chain alcohols includes culturing these non-naturally occurring microbial organisms.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/398,996, filed Mar. 5, 2009, now U.S Pat. No. 7,977,084, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/034,146, filed Mar. 5, 2008; U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/090,171, filed Aug. 19, 2008; and U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 61/110,500, filed Oct. 31, 2008, each of which the entire contents is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to biosynthetic processes and, more specifically to organisms having primary alcohol biosynthetic capability.

Primary alcohols are a product class of compounds having a variety of industrial applications which include a variety of biofuels and specialty chemicals. Primary alcohols also can be used to make a large number of additional industrial products including polymers and surfactants. For example, higher primary alcohols (C₄-C₂₀) and their ethoxylates are used as surfactants in many consumer detergents, cleaning products and personal care products worldwide such as laundry powders and liquids, dishwashing liquid and hard surface cleaners. They are also used in the manufacture of a variety of industrial chemicals and in lubricating oil additives. Long-chain primary alcohols, such as octanol and hexanol, have useful organoleptic properties and have long been employed as fragrance and flavor materials. Smaller chain (C4-C8) higher primary alcohols (e.g., butanol) are used as chemical intermediates for production of derivatives such as acrylates used in paints, coatings, and adhesives applications.

Primary alcohols are currently produced from, for example, hydrogenation of fatty acids, hydroformylation of terminal olefins, partial oxidation of n-paraffins and the Al-catalyzed polymerization of ethylene. Unfortunately, it is not commercially viable to produce primary alcohols directly from the oxidation of petroleum-based linear hydrocarbons (n-paraffins). This impracticality is because the oxidation of n-paraffins produces primarily secondary alcohols, tertiary alcohols or ketones, or a mixture of these compounds, but does not produce high yields of primary alcohols. Additionally, currently known methods for producing primary alcohols suffer from the disadvantage that they are restricted to feedstock which is relatively expensive, notably ethylene, which is produced via the thermal cracking of petroleum. In addition, current methods require several steps, and several catalyst types.

LCA production by microorganisms involves fatty acid synthesis followed by acyl-reduction steps. The universal fatty acid biosynthesis pathway found in most cells has been investigated for production of LCAs and other fatty acid derivatives. There is currently a great deal of improvement that can be achieved to provide more efficient biosynthesis pathways for LCA production with significantly higher theoretical product and energy yields.

Thus, there exists a need for alternative means for effectively producing commercial quantities of primary alcohols. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages as well.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a microbial organism having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol, the malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway having ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase, the acyl-reduction pathway having an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase.

In other aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method for producing a primary alcohol. The method includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism have having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol under substantially anaerobic conditions for a sufficient period of time to produce the primary alcohol, the malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway having ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase, the acyl-reduction pathway having an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase.

In some aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a non-naturally occurring microbial organism that includes one or more gene disruptions occurring in genes encoding enzymes that couple long-chain alcohol (LCA) production to growth of the non-naturally occurring microbial organism. In other embodiments, LCA production can be accomplished during non-growth phases using the same disruption strategies. The one or more gene disruptions reduce the activity of the enzyme, whereby the gene disruptions confer production of LCA onto the non-naturally occurring microbial organism.

In other aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method for producing LCA that includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having one or more gene disruptions. The one or more gene disruptions occur in genes encoding an enzyme that confers LCA production in the organism.

In some aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism, that includes one or more gene disruptions. The one or more gene disruptions occur in genes that encode enzymes such as a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase and a mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase. These disruptions confer production of long chain alcohols in the cytosol of the organism.

In some aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism that includes one or more gene disruptions. The one or more gene disruptions occur in genes encoding enzymes such as a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase, and a mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase. These disruptions confer production of long chain alcohols in the mitochondrion of said organism.

In other aspects, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method for producing long chain alcohols, including culturing these non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organisms.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis and reduction (MI-LCA) pathway to produce LCAs.

FIG. 2 shows the contrasted hypothetical production envelopes of an OptKnock-designed strain against a typical non-growth-coupled production strain. The potential evolutionary trajectories of the OptKnock strain lead to a high producing phenotype.

FIG. 3 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of strain design I (alternating dotted and dashed) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed.

FIG. 4 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of strain designs II (alternating dotted and dashed), III-V (dashed), and VI-XI (dotted) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed.

FIG. 5 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of strain designs XII (alternating dotted and dashed) and XIII-XV (dashed) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed.

FIG. 6 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of strain designs XVI-XVIII (alternating dotted and dashed) and XIX-XXI (dashed) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed.

FIG. 7 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of Designs I (alternating dotted and dashed), V (dashed), and V_A (dotted) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed. Point A refers to the dodecanol production rate at maximum growth of a strain engineered according to design V_A and point B refers to the minimal dodecanol production rate required for growth.

FIG. 8 shows the growth-coupled LCA production characteristics of Designs I (alternating dotted and dashed, XII (long dashed), XII_A (short dashed), and XII_B (dotted) compared with those of wild-type E. coli (black). A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr is assumed. Point A refers to the dodecanol production rate at maximum growth of a strain engineered according to design XII_B and point B refers to the minimal dodecanol production rate required for growth.

FIG. 9 a shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by relying on the AMP-forming acetyl CoA synthetase for the formation of acetyl CoA for dodecanol production. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 9 b shows the growth-coupled production envelopes for the production of dodecanol in S. cerevisiae in the scenario where acetyl CoA synthetase is used for acetyl CoA production in the cytosol. The black curve shows the production envelope for the wild-type network under aerobic conditions, and the dark gray curve shows the growth-coupled production characteristics for the mutant network. A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDCW.hr is assumed.

FIG. 10 a shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by relying on the ADP-forming acetate CoA ligase for the formation of acetyl CoA for dodecanol production. The gray arrow represents the addition of a heterologous enzyme. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 10 b shows the growth-coupled production envelopes for the production of dodecanol in S. cerevisiae in the scenario where acetate CoA ligase is employed for acetyl-CoA production in the cytosol. The black curve shows the production envelope for the wild-type network under aerobic conditions. The light gray curve shows the increase in feasible space after acetate CoA ligase is added to the network and the dark gray curve shows the growth-coupled production characteristics for the mutant network in the presence of oxygen. A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDCW.hr is assumed.

FIG. 11 a shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by relying on the acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase for the formation of acetyl CoA for dodecanol production. The gray arrow shows a heterologous enzyme. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 11 b shows the growth-coupled production envelopes for the anaerobic production of dodecanol in S. cerevisiae. The black curve shows the production capabilities for the wild-type network, the light gray dotted curve shows the production characteristics when acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase is added to the network and the dark gray curve shows the growth-coupling when alcohol dehydrogenase is deleted from the augmented network. Note the increase in the theoretical maximum when acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase is functional. A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDCW.hr is assumed.

FIG. 12 shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by relying on a cytosolic pyruvate dehydrogenase for acetyl CoA and NADH production. This can be accomplished by introducing a heterologous cytosolic enzyme (shown in gray) or by retargeting the native mitochondrial enzyme to the cytosol. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 13 shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by relying on a cytosolic pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase for acetyl CoA and NADH production. This can be accomplished by introducing a heterologous enzyme in the cytosol (shown in gray). The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 14 shows the formation of dodecanol in the cytosol by the introduction of a heterologous pyruvate formate lyase (shown in gray) in the cytosol. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 15 a shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by using the pyruvate dehydrogenase for the formation of acetyl-CoA. The dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 15 b shows the growth-coupled production envelopes for the production of dodecanol in S. cerevisiae mitochondrion. The black curve shows the production capabilities for the wild-type network under anaerobic conditions and the dark gray curve shows the production characteristics in the absence of oxygen when pyruvate decarboxylase is deleted from the network. A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDCW.hr is assumed.

FIG. 16 shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by using the pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase for formation of acetyl CoA. The gray arrow shows the heterologous enzyme and the dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 17 shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by using the pyruvate formate lyase for formation of acetyl CoA. The gray arrow shows the heterologous enzyme and the dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 18 shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by adding the mitochondrial acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. The gray arrow shows the heterologous enzyme(s) and the dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 19 a shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by using the acetyl CoA synthetase for formation of acetyl CoA. The gray arrow shows the heterologous enzyme(s) and the dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario.

FIG. 19 b shows the growth-coupled production envelopes for the production of dodecanol in S. cerevisiae mitochondrion when acetyl-CoA is formed through the mitochondrial acetyl-CoA synthetase. The black curve shows the production envelope for the wild-type network under aerobic conditions, the light dark gray curve shows the production characteristics when the deletions have been imposed upon the network. The growth coupling can be improved further (dark gray curve) when flux through the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway is decreased. A glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDCW.hr is assumed.

FIG. 20 shows the formation of dodecanol in the mitochondrion by using the acetate CoA ligase for formation of acetyl CoA. The gray arrows show the heterologous enzyme(s) and the dotted arrows depict the flow of the majority of the carbon flux in this production scenario

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention is directed, in part, to recombinant microorganisms capable of synthesizing the primary alcohols using a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis and reduction pathway. The modified microorganisms of the invention also are capable of secreting the resultant primary alcohol into the culture media or fermentation broth for further manipulation or isolation. Recombinant microorganisms of the invention can be engineered to produce commercial quantities of a variety of different primary alcohols having different chain lengths between 4 (C4) and 24 (C24) or more carbon atoms. Production of primary alcohols through the modified pathways of the invention is particularly useful because it results in higher product and ATP yields than through naturally occurring biosynthetic pathways such as the well-documented malonyl-CoA dependent fatty acid synthesis pathway. Using acetyl-CoA as a C2 extension unit instead of malonyl-acyl carrier protein (malonyl-ACP) saves one ATP molecule per unit flux of acetyl-CoA entering the elongation cycle. The elongation cycle results in acyl-CoA instead of acyl-ACP, and precludes the need of the ATP-consuming acyl-CoA synthase reactions for the production of octanol and other primary alcohols. The primary alcohol producing organisms of the invention can additionally allow the use of biosynthetic processes to convert low cost renewable feedstock for the manufacture of chemical products.

In one specific embodiment, the invention utilizes a heterologous malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis pathway coupled with an acyl-CoA reduction pathway to form primary alcohol species. The coupling of these two pathways will convert a carbon or energy source into acetyl-CoA, which is used as both primer and extension unit in biosynthetic elongation cycle. The elongation cycle includes ketoacyl-CoA thiolase (or ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase), 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase. Each cycle results in the formation of an acyl-CoA extended by one C2 unit compared to the acyl-CoA substrate entering the elongation cycle. Carbon chain-length of the primary alcohols can be controlled by chain-length specific enoyl-CoA reductase, ketoacyl-CoA thiolase and/or acyl-CoA reductase. Acyl-CoA products with desired chain-lengths are funneled into a reduction pathway and reduced through the combination of acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase or the fatty alcohol forming acyl-CoA reductase to form desired primary alcohol. These reduction steps serve as another mechanism for control of chain length, for example, through the use of chain-length specific acyl-CoA reductases.

As used herein, the term “non-naturally occurring” when used in reference to a microbial organism or microorganism of the invention is intended to mean that the microbial organism has at least one genetic alteration not normally found in a naturally occurring strain of the referenced species, including wild-type strains of the referenced species. Genetic alterations include, for example, modifications introducing expressible nucleic acids encoding metabolic polypeptides, other nucleic acid additions, nucleic acid deletions and/or other functional disruption of the microbial genetic material. Such modifications include, for example, coding regions and functional fragments thereof, for heterologous, homologous or both heterologous and homologous polypeptides for the referenced species. Additional modifications include, for example, non-coding regulatory regions in which the modifications alter expression of a gene or operon. Exemplary metabolic polypeptides include enzymes within a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid biosynthetic pathway and enzymes within an acyl-reduction pathway.

As used herein, the term “isolated” when used in reference to a microbial organism is intended to mean an organism that is substantially free of at least one component as the referenced microbial organism is found in nature. The term includes a microbial organism that is removed from some or all components as it is found in its natural environment. The term also includes a microbial organism that is removed from some or all components as the microbial organism is found in non-naturally occurring environments. Therefore, an isolated microbial organism is partly or completely separated from other substances as it is found in nature or as it is grown, stored or subsisted in non-naturally occurring environments. Specific examples of isolated microbial organisms include partially pure microbes, substantially pure microbes and microbes cultured in a medium that is non-naturally occurring.

As used herein, the terms “microbial,” “microbial organism” or “microorganism” is intended to mean any organism that exists as a microscopic cell that is included within the domains of archaea, bacteria or eukarya. Therefore, the term is intended to encompass prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells or organisms having a microscopic size and includes bacteria, archaea and eubacteria of all species as well as eukaryotic microorganisms such as yeast and fungi. The term also includes cell cultures of any species that can be cultured for the production of a biochemical.

As used herein, the term “primary alcohol” is intended to mean an alcohol which has the hydroxyl radical connected to a primary carbon. The term includes an alcohol that possesses the group —CH₂OH which can be oxidized so as to form a corresponding aldehyde and acid having the same number of carbon atoms. Alcohols include any of a series of hydroxyl compounds, the simplest of which are derived from saturated hydrocarbons, have the general formula C_(n)H_(2n)+1OH, and include ethanol and methanol. Exemplary primary alcohols include butanol, hexanol, heptanol, octanol, nananol, decanol, dodecanol, tetradecanol, and hexadecanol.

As used herein, the term “CoA” or “coenzyme A” is intended to mean an organic cofactor or prosthetic group (nonprotein portion of an enzyme) whose presence is required for the activity of many enzymes (the apoenzyme) to form an active enzyme system. Coenzyme A functions, for example, in certain condensing enzymes, acts in acetyl or other acyl group transfer and in fatty acid synthesis and oxidation.

As used herein, the term “substantially anaerobic” when used in reference to a culture or growth condition is intended to mean that the amount of oxygen is less than about 10% of saturation for dissolved oxygen in liquid media. The term also is intended to include sealed chambers of liquid or solid medium maintained with an atmosphere of less than about 1% oxygen.

“Exogenous” as it is used herein is intended to mean that the referenced molecule or the referenced activity is introduced into the host microbial organism. Therefore, the term as it is used in reference to expression of an encoding nucleic acid refers to introduction of the encoding nucleic acid in an expressible form into the microbial organism. When used in reference to a biosynthetic activity, the term refers to an activity that is introduced into the host reference organism. The source can be, for example, a homologous or heterologous encoding nucleic acids that expresses the referenced activity following introduction into the host microbial organism. Therefore, the term “endogenous” refers to a referenced molecule or activity that is present in the host. Similarly, the term when used in reference to expression of an encoding nucleic acid refers to expression of an encoding nucleic acid contained within the microbial organism. The term “heterologous” refers to a molecule or activity derived from a source other than the referenced species whereas “homologous” refers to a molecule or activity derived from the host microbial organism. Accordingly, exogenous expression of an encoding nucleic acid of the invention can utilize either or both a heterologous or homologous encoding nucleic acid.

As used herein, the term “growth-coupled” when used in reference to the production of a biochemical is intended to mean that the biosynthesis of the referenced biochemical is a product produced during the growth phase of a microorganism. “Non-growth-coupled when used in reference to the production of a biochemical is intended to mean that the biosynthesis of the referenced biochemical is a product produced during a non-growth phase of a microorganism. Production of a biochemical product can be optionally obligatory to the growth of the organism.

As used herein, the term “metabolic modification” is intended to refer to a biochemical reaction that is altered from its naturally occurring state. Metabolic modifications can include, for example, elimination of a biochemical reaction activity by functional disruptions of one or more genes encoding an enzyme participating in the reaction. Sets of exemplary metabolic modifications are illustrated in Table 1. Individual reactions specified by such metabolic modifications and their corresponding gene complements are exemplified in Table 2 for Escherichia coli. Reactants and products utilized in these reactions are exemplified in Table 3.

As used herein, the term “gene disruption,” or grammatical equivalents thereof, is intended to mean a genetic alteration that renders the encoded gene product inactive. The genetic alteration can be, for example, deletion of the entire gene, deletion of a regulatory sequence required for transcription or translation, deletion of a portion of the gene with results in a truncated gene product or by any of various mutation strategies that inactivate the encoded gene product. One particularly useful method of gene disruption is complete gene deletion because it reduces or eliminates the occurrence of genetic reversions in the non-naturally occurring microorganisms of the invention. The term “gene disruption” is also intended to mean a genetic alteration that lowers the activity of a given gene product relative to its activity in a wild-type organism. This attenuation of activity can be due to, for example, a deletion in a portion of the gene which results in a truncated gene product or any of various mutation strategies that render the encoded gene product less active than its natural form, replacement or mutation of the promoter sequence leading to lower or less efficient expression of the gene, culturing the organism under a condition where the gene is less highly expressed than under normal culture conditions, or introducing antisense RNA molecules that interact with complementary mRNA molecules of the gene and alter its expression.

As used herein, the term “stable” when used in reference to growth-coupled production of a biochemical product is intended to refer to microorganism that can be cultured for greater than five generations without loss of the coupling between growth and biochemical synthesis. Generally, stable growth-coupled biochemical production will be greater than 10 generations, particularly stable growth-coupled biochemical production will be greater than about 25 generations, and more particularly, stable growth-coupled biochemical production will be greater than 50 generations, including indefinitely. Stable growth-coupled production of a biochemical can be achieved, for example, by disruption of a gene encoding an enzyme catalyzing each reaction within a set of metabolic modifications. The stability of growth-coupled production of a biochemical can be enhanced through multiple disruptions, significantly reducing the likelihood of multiple compensatory reversions occurring for each disrupted activity.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the metabolic modifications exemplified herein are described with reference to Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisae genes and their corresponding metabolic reactions. However, given the complete genome sequencing of a wide variety of organisms and the high level of skill in the area of genomics, those skilled in the art will readily be able to apply the teachings and guidance provided herein to essentially all other organisms. For example, the Escherichia coli metabolic alterations exemplified herein can readily be applied to other species by incorporating the same or analogous gene disruptions in the other species. Such disruptions can include, for example, genetic alterations of species homologs, in general, and in particular, orthologs, paralogs or nonorthologous gene displacements.

As used herein, the term “confers production” refers not only to organisms that lack operational metabolic pathways for the production of LCAs, but also to organisms that may have some level of production of LCAs. Thus, an organism that already generates LCAs can benefit from improved production conferred onto the organism by the disruption of one or more genes.

As used herein, the term “eukaryotic organism” refers to any organism having a cell type having specialized organelles in the cytoplasm and a membrane-bound nucleus enclosing genetic material organized into chromosomes. The term is intended to encompass all eukaryotic organisms including eukaryotic microbial organisms such as yeast and fungi. The term also includes cell cultures of any eukaryotic species that can be cultured for the production of a biochemical where the eukaryotic species need not be a microbial organism. A “eukaryotic microbial organism,” “microbial organism” or “microorganism” is intended to mean any eukaryotic organism that exists as a microscopic cell that is included within the domain of eukarya.

An ortholog is a gene or genes that are related by vertical descent and are responsible for substantially the same or identical functions in different organisms. For example, mouse epoxide hydrolase and human epoxide hydrolase can be considered orthologs for the biological function of hydrolysis of epoxides. Genes are related by vertical descent when, for example, they share sequence similarity of sufficient amount to indicate they are homologous, or related by evolution from a common ancestor. Genes can also be considered orthologs if they share three-dimensional structure but not necessarily sequence similarity, of a sufficient amount to indicate that they have evolved from a common ancestor to the extent that the primary sequence similarity is not identifiable. Genes that are orthologous can encode proteins with sequence similarity of about 25% to 100% amino acid sequence identity. Genes encoding proteins sharing an amino acid similarity less that 25% can also be considered to have arisen by vertical descent if their three-dimensional structure also shows similarities. Members of the serine protease family of enzymes, including tissue plasminogen activator and elastase, are considered to have arisen by vertical descent from a common ancestor.

Orthologs include genes or their encoded gene products that through, for example, evolution, have diverged in structure or overall activity. For example, where one species encodes a gene product exhibiting two functions and where such functions have been separated into distinct genes in a second species, the three genes and their corresponding products are considered to be orthologs. For the growth-coupled production of a biochemical product, those skilled in the art will understand that the orthologous gene harboring the metabolic activity to be disrupted is to be chosen for construction of the non-naturally occurring microorganism. An example of orthologs exhibiting separable activities is where distinct activities have been separated into distinct gene products between two or more species or within a single species. A specific example is the separation of elastase proteolysis and plasminogen proteolysis, two types of serine protease activity, into distinct molecules as plasminogen activator and elastase. A second example is the separation of mycoplasma 5′-3′ exonuclease and Drosophila DNA polymerase III activity. The DNA polymerase from the first species can be considered an ortholog to either or both of the exonuclease or the polymerase from the second species and vice versa.

In contrast, paralogs are homologs related by, for example, duplication followed by evolutionary divergence and have similar or common, but not identical functions. Paralogs can originate or derive from, for example, the same species or from a different species. For example, microsomal epoxide hydrolase (epoxide hydrolase I) and soluble epoxide hydrolase (epoxide hydrolase II) can be considered paralogs because they represent two distinct enzymes, co-evolved from a common ancestor, that catalyze distinct reactions and have distinct functions in the same species. Paralogs are proteins from the same species with significant sequence similarity to each other suggesting that they are homologous, or related through co-evolution from a common ancestor. Groups of paralogous protein families include HipA homologs, luciferase genes, peptidases, and others.

A nonorthologous gene displacement is a nonorthologous gene from one species that can substitute for a referenced gene function in a different species. Substitution includes, for example, being able to perform substantially the same or a similar function in the species of origin compared to the referenced function in the different species. Although generally, a nonorthologous gene displacement will be identifiable as structurally related to a known gene encoding the referenced function, less structurally related but functionally similar genes and their corresponding gene products nevertheless will still fall within the meaning of the term as it is used herein. Functional similarity requires, for example, at least some structural similarity in the active site or binding region of a nonorthologous gene compared to a gene encoding the function sought to be substituted. Therefore, a nonorthologous gene includes, for example, a paralog or an unrelated gene.

Therefore, in identifying and constructing the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention having growth-coupled production of a biochemical, those skilled in the art will understand applying the teaching and guidance provided herein to a particular species that the identification of metabolic modifications should include identification and disruption of orthologs. To the extent that paralogs and/or nonorthologous gene displacements are present in the referenced microorganism that encode an enzyme catalyzing a similar or substantially similar metabolic reaction, those skilled in the art also can disrupt these evolutionally related genes to ensure that any functional redundancy in enzymatic activities do not short circuit the designed metabolic modifications.

Orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements can be determined by methods well known to those skilled in the art. For example, inspection of nucleic acid or amino acid sequences for two polypeptides will reveal sequence identity and similarities between the compared sequences. Based on such similarities, one skilled in the art can determine if the similarity is sufficiently high to indicate the proteins are related through evolution from a common ancestor. Algorithms well known to those skilled in the art, such as Align, BLAST, Clustal W and others compared and determine a raw sequence similarity or identity, and also determine the presence or significance of gaps in the sequence which can be assigned a weight or score. Such algorithms also are known in the art and are similarly applicable for determining nucleotide sequence similarity or identity. Parameters for sufficient similarly to determine relatedness are computed based on well known methods for calculating statistical similarity, or the chance of finding a similar match in a random polypeptide, and the significance of the match determined. A computer comparison of two or more sequences can, if desired, also be optimized visually by those skilled in the art. Related gene products or proteins can be expected to have a high similarity, for example, 25% to 100% sequence identity. Proteins that are unrelated can have an identity which is essentially the same as would be expected to occur by chance, if a database of sufficient size is scanned (about 5%). Sequences between 5% and 24% may or may not represent sufficient homology to conclude that the compared sequences are related. Additional statistical analysis to determine the significance of such matches given the size of the data set can be carried out to determine the relevance of these sequences.

Exemplary parameters for determining relatedness of two or more sequences using the BLAST algorithm, for example, can be as set forth below. Briefly, amino acid sequence alignments can be performed using BLASTP version 2.0.8 (Jan. 5, 1999) and the following parameters: Matrix: 0 BLOSUM62; gap open: 11; gap extension: 1; x_dropoff: 50; expect: 10.0; wordsize: 3; filter: on. Nucleic acid sequence alignments can be performed using BLASTN version 2.0.6 (Sep. 16, 1998) and the following parameters: Match: 1; mismatch: −2; gap open: 5; gap extension: 2; x_dropoff: 50; expect: 10.0; wordsize: 11; filter: off. Those skilled in the art will know what modifications can be made to the above parameters to either increase or decrease the stringency of the comparison, for example, and determine the relatedness of two or more sequences.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can contain stable genetic alterations, which refer to microorganisms that can be cultured for greater than five generations without loss of the alteration. Generally, stable genetic alterations include modifications that persist greater than 10 generations, particularly stable modifications will persist more than about 25 generations, and more particularly, stable genetic modifications will be greater than 50 generations, including indefinitely.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the genetic alterations, including metabolic modifications exemplified herein are described with reference to Euglena gracilis, E. coli and S. cerevisiae genes and their corresponding metabolic reactions. However, given the complete genome sequencing of a wide variety of organisms and the high level of skill in the area of genomics, those skilled in the art will readily be able to apply the teachings and guidance provided herein to essentially all other organisms. For example, the E. coli metabolic alterations exemplified herein can readily be applied to other species by incorporating the same or analogous encoding nucleic acid from species other than the referenced species. Such genetic alterations include, for example, genetic alterations of species homologs, in general, and in particular, orthologs, paralogs or nonorthologous gene displacements.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol, said malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway comprising ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase, said acyl-reduction pathway comprising an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase.

Malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis is a metabolic process used by photosynthetic flagellate such as Euglena gracilis (Inui et al., Euro. J. Biochem. 96:931-34 (1984). These single cell organisms exhibit both algae and protozoan characteristics and, depending on conditions, can utilize either light energy (photosynthesis) or chemical energy (eating) for biochemical processes. Under anaerobic conditions, E. gracilis converts paramylon, the reserve beta-1,2-glucan polysaccharide, into wax ester with concomitant generation of ATP, a phenomenon named wax ester fermentation (Inui et al., supra, 1982; Inui et al., Agricultural and Biological Chemistry 47:2669-2671 (1983)). Fatty acid synthesis through the malonyl-CoA-independent pathway results in a net gain of ATP, whereas other fatty acid synthesis systems can not support the net gain of ATP. ATP also can be produced under aerobic conditions (Inui et al., Archives Biochemistry and Biophysics 237:423-29 (1985)).

In the absence of oxygen, acetyl-CoA is generated from pyruvate via an oxygen-sensitive pyruvate:NADP+ oxidoreductase (Inui et al., supra, 1984; Inui et al., supra, 1985; Inui et al., Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 280:292-98 (1990); Inui et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry 262:9130-35 (1987)), and serves as the terminal electron acceptor of glucose oxidation via the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis to form wax ester (Inui et al., supra, (1985)). E. gracilis contains five different systems of fatty acid synthesis, including four fatty acid synthesis systems located in different compartments, and the mitochondrial malonyl-CoA-independent FAS system involved in anaerobic wax ester fermentation (Hoffmeister et al., J. of Biological Chemistry 280:4329-38 (2005)). The malonyl-CoA-independent FAS system has been shown to produce C8-C18 fatty acids. A fatty acid is reduced to alcohol, esterified with another fatty acid, and deposited in the cytosol as waxes (Inui et al., Febs Letters 150:89-93 (1982); Inui et al., European Journal of Biochemistry 142:121-126 (1984)). The wax can constitute approximately 50% of the total lipid in dark grown cells (Rosenberg, A., Biochemistry 2:1148 (1963)). A particularly useful embodiment of the invention harness the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) system under anaerobic conditions to produce large quantities of alcohols using the modified biosynthetic pathways described herein.

The malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis pathway is similar to the reversal of fatty acid oxidation and is referred as the fatty acid synthesis in mitochondria or acyl-carrier protein (ACP)-independent fatty acid synthesis as it is known in the art. Compared to the malonyl-CoA-dependent fatty acid synthesis (a.k.a. ACP dependent fatty acid synthesis; Smith et al., Progress in Lipid Research 42:289-317 (2003); White et al., Annual Review of Biochemistry 74:791-831 (2005)), there are several differences. First, acetyl-CoA is used as the extension unit instead of malonyl-ACP. Utilization of acetyl-CoA as elongation substrate in the malonyl-CoA-independent pathway eliminates the need for acetyl-CoA carboxylase complex (ACC), which converts acetyl-CoA to malonyl-CoA, and thus conserves one ATP molecule per unit flux of acetyl-CoA entering the elongation cycle. Second, all of the intermediates in the elongation cycle are attached to CoA instead of ACP. The elongation cycle can include (i) ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase (or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, EC 2.3.1.16), (ii) 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.35 and 1.1.1.211), (iii) enoyl-CoA hydratase (EC 4.2.1.17 and 4.2.1.74), and (iv) enoyl-CoA reductase (EC 1.3.1.44 and 1.3.1.38). Third, the product from the elongation cycle is acyl-CoA, which can be utilized directly by acyl-CoA reductase, followed by a dehydrogenase for conversion to alcohol, or by fatty acid forming acyl-CoA reductase (FAR), which converts acyl-CoA directly to alcohol. Therefore, thioesterase and acyl-CoA synthase are not required for the production of primary alcohols, as is the case with the malonyl-CoA-dependent pathways.

For example, the microorganisms of the invention utilize the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis pathway coupled with the reduction of the fatty acid to form primary alcohol as illustrated in FIG. 1. The microorganism can additionally be modified to convert, for example, renewable feedstock to acetyl-CoA. In the bioengineered pathways of the invention, acetyl-CoA can be used as both a primer and an extension unit in the elongation cycle described above. At the end of each elongation cycle, an acyl-CoA is formed that is one C2 unit longer than the acyl-CoA entering the elongation cycle. Coupling the above synthesis pathway to a reduction pathway yields the primary alcohol products of the invention. Particularly useful is the coupling of acyl-CoA having a desired chain-length to a reduction pathway that uses the combination of chain-length specific acyl-CoA reductase (EC 1.2.1.50) and alcohol dehydrogenase (1.1.1.1) or the fatty alcohol forming acyl-CoA reductase (FAR, EC 1.1.1) to form desired primary alcohol. Carbon chain-length of the primary alcohols can be controlled by chain-length specific enoyl-CoA reductase, ketoacyl-CoA thiolase and/or acyl-CoA reductase.

The microorganisms of the invention having the coupled biosynthetic pathways described above can produce primary alcohols at very high levels. For example, the maximum theoretical yield for octanol using the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid biosynthetic pathway and the associated energetics were calculated by adding the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis, acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase reactions to a predictive E. coli metabolic stoichiometric network using the in silico metabolic modeling system known in the art as SimPheny™ (see, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/173,547, filed Jun. 14, 2002, and in International Patent Application No. PCT/US03/18838, filed Jun. 13, 2003). The model assumes that the secretion of octanol does not require energy. Table 4 shows the maximum theoretical yield for octanol under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. The malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid biosynthetic pathway is much more energy-efficient than the malonyl-CoA-dependent fatty acid synthesis pathways, and allows for a maximum theoretical yield of 0.5 mole octanol/mole of glucose and maximum ATP yield of 2.125 mole/mole of glucose under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

TABLE 4 Comparison of the maximum theoretical yield of octanol using (1) the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis and acyl-reduction pathway and (2) the ACP-dependent fatty acid synthesis and pathway. Malonyl-CoA-independent Typical fatty acid fatty acid biosynthetic and biosynthetic and reduction pathway reduction pathway Anaerobic Aerobic Anaerobic Aerobic Octanol Yield 0.5 0.5 0.375 0.48 (mole/mole glucose) Max ATP Yield @ 2.125 2.125 0 0 max octanol yield (mole/mole glucose)

A non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention employs combinations of metabolic reactions for biosynthetically producing a target primary alcohol or a target mixture of primary alcohols of the invention. The combination of metabolic reactions can be engineered in a variety of different alternatives to achieve exogenous expression of a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol. The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms will express at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme. In certain embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention will be engineered to exogenously express more than one, including all, nucleic acids encoding some or all of the enzymes for the complete pathway of malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway enzymes. Some or all of the enzymes for acyl-reduction also can be exogenously expressed. Exogenous expression should be at levels sufficient to produce metabolically utilizable gene product and result in the production of a target primary alcohol or set of alcohols.

The biochemical reactions for formation of primary alcohols from a carbon or other energy source through a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway is shown in FIG. 1. The malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway produces acyl-CoA. Concomitant utilization of this intermediate product to produce target primary alcohols by an acyl-reduction pathway also is shown in FIG. 1.

The invention is described herein with general reference to the metabolic reaction, reactant or product thereof, or with specific reference to one or more nucleic acids or genes encoding an enzyme associated with or catalyzing the referenced metabolic reaction, reactant or product. Unless otherwise expressly stated herein, those skilled in the art will understand that reference to a reaction also constitutes reference to the reactants and products of the reaction. Similarly, unless otherwise expressly stated herein, reference to a reactant or product also references the reaction and that reference to any of these metabolic constitutes also references the gene or genes encoding the enzymes that catalyze the referenced reaction, reactant or product. Likewise, given the well known fields of metabolic biochemistry, enzymology and genomics, reference herein to a gene or encoding nucleic acid also constitutes a reference to the corresponding encoded enzyme and the reaction it catalyzes as well as the reactants and products of the reaction.

Microbial organisms other than Euglena gracilis generally lack the capacity to synthesize acyl-CoA through a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway. Moreover, organisms having all of the requisite metabolic enzymatic capabilities are not known to produce acyl-CoA from the enzymes described and biochemical pathways exemplified herein. Rather, microorganisms having the enzymatic constituents of malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway operate to degrade short, medium, and long chain fatty-acyl-CoA compounds to acetyl-CoA. E. gracilis, having a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, utilizes this pathway to produce acylglycerols, trihydric sugar alcohols, phospholipids, wax esters and/or fatty acids. In contrast, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention generate acyl-CoA as a product of the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway and funnel this product into an acyl-reduction pathway via favorable thermodynamic characteristics. Product biosynthesis of using the non-naturally occurring organisms of the invention is not only particularly useful for the production of primary alcohols, it also allows for the further biosynthesis of compounds using acyl-CoA and/or primary alcohols as an intermediate reactant.

The non-naturally occurring primary alcohol-producing microbial organisms of the invention are generated by ensuring that a host microbial organism includes functional capabilities for the complete biochemical synthesis of a malonyl-CoA independent fatty acid biosynthetic pathway and for an acyl-reduction pathway of the invention. Ensuring complete functional capabilities for both pathways will confer primary alcohol biosynthesis capability onto the host microbial organism. The enzymes participating in a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway include ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase. The enzymes participating in an acyl-reduction pathway include an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase or an enzyme having dual reductase and dehydrogenase activity.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be produced by introducing expressible nucleic acids encoding one or more of the enzymes participating in the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathways. Depending on the host microbial organism chosen for biosynthesis, nucleic acids for some or all of these biosynthetic pathways can be expressed. For example, if a chosen host is deficient in all of the enzymes in the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, then expressible nucleic acids for each of the four enzymes ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase are introduced into the host for subsequent exogenous expression. Alternatively, for example, if the chosen host is deficient less than all four of the above enzymes, then all that is needed is to express nucleic acids encoding the deficient enzymes. For example, if a host is deficient in 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase and enoyl-CoA hydratase a functionally complete malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway can be engineererd by introduction of nucleic acids encoding these two enzymes.

In like fashion, where endogenous host biosynthetic machinery is complete for an acyl-reduction pathway, then genetic modification is unnecessary. However, if host capabilities are deficient in either or both of the acyl-CoA reductase and/or alcohol dehydrogenase activities, then introduction of the deficient activity by expression of an exogenous encoding nucleic acid is needed. Accordingly, depending on the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway constituents of a selected host microbial organism, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention will include at least one exogenously expressed malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway-encoding nucleic acid and up to all six malonyl-CoA independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway encoding nucleic acids.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that the number of encoding nucleic acids to introduce in an expressible form will parallel the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway deficiencies of the selected host microbial organism. Therefore, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention can have one, two, three, four, five or six encoding nucleic acids encoding the above enzymes constituting the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, an acyl-reduction pathway or both the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and acyl-reduction biosynthetic pathways. In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms also can include other genetic modifications that facilitate or optimize acyl-CoA and/or primary alcohol biosynthesis or that confer other useful functions onto the host microbial organism. One such other functionality can include, for example, augmentation of the synthesis of one or more of the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway precursors such as acetyl-CoA, β-ketoacyl-CoA, β-hydroxyacyl-CoA, trans-2-enoyl-CoA and/or fatty aldehyde.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention is generated from a host that contains the enzymatic capability to synthesize acyl-CoA through a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, or having the capability to catalyze one or more of the enzymatic steps within the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathways. In these specific embodiments it can be useful to increase the synthesis or accumulation of a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway product or an acyl-reduction pathway product to, for example, efficiently drive malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway reactions toward primary alcohol production. Increased synthesis or accumulation can be accomplished by, for example, overexpression of nucleic acids encoding one or more of the above-described malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway enzymes. Over expression of the desired pathway enzyme or enzymes can occur, for example, through exogenous expression of the endogenous gene or genes, or through exogenous expression of a heterologous gene or genes. Therefore, naturally occurring organisms can readily be generated to be non-naturally primary alcohol producing microbial organisms of the invention through overexpression of one, two, three, four, five or all six nucleic acids encoding a malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or a acyl-reduction pathway enzymes. In addition, a non-naturally occurring organism can be generated by mutagenesis of an endogenous gene that results in an increase in activity of an enzyme in the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction biosynthetic pathways.

In particularly useful embodiments, exogenous expression of the encoding nucleic acids is employed. Exogenous expression confers the ability to custom tailor the expression and/or regulatory elements to the host and application to achieve a desired expression level that is controlled by the user. However, endogenous expression also can be utilized in other embodiments such as by removing a negative regulatory effector or induction of the gene's promoter when linked to an inducible promoter or other regulatory element. For example, activation of fadB, an E. coli gene having malonyl-CoA independent FAS activity corresponding to 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase and enoyl-CoA hydratase activities can be accomplished by genetically knocking out a negative regulator, fadR, and co-expressing a heterologous ketothiolase (phaA from Ralstonia eutropha; Sato et al., Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering 103:38-44 (2007)). Thus, an endogenous gene having a naturally occurring inducible promoter can be up-regulated by providing the appropriate inducing agent, or the regulatory region of an endogenous gene can be engineered to incorporate an inducible regulatory element, thereby allowing the regulation of increased expression of an endogenous gene at a desired time. Similarly, an inducible promoter can be included as a regulatory element for an exogenous gene introduced into a non-naturally occurring microbial organism.

Additionally, for example, if an endogenous enzyme or enzymes operate in a reverse direction to the desired malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, genetic modifications can be made to attenuate or eliminate such activities. For example, within the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, the ketothiolase, dehydrogenase, and enoyl-CoA hydratase steps are reversible whereas the enoyl-CoA reductase step is primarily oxidative under physiological conditions (Hoffmeister et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry 280:4329-4338 (2005); Campbell, J. W. and J. E. Cronan, Jr., J Bacteriol. 184:3759-3764 (2002)). To accomplish reduction of a 2-enoyl-CoA intermediate a genetic modification can be introduced to attenuate or eliminate the reverse oxidative reaction.

Sources of encoding nucleic acids for a malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway enzyme can include, for example, any species where the encoded gene product is capable of catalyzing the referenced reaction. Such species include both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms including, but not limited to, bacteria, including archaea and eubacteria, and eukaryotes, including yeast, plant, insect, animal, and mammal, including human. For example, the microbial organisms having primary alcohol biosynthetic production are exemplified herein with reference to an E. coli host. However, with the complete genome sequence available for now more than 550 species (with more than half of these available on public databases such as the NCBI), including 395 microorganism genomes and a variety of yeast, fungi, plant, and mammalian genomes, the identification of genes encoding the requisite malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction biosynthetic activity for one or more genes in related or distant species, including for example, homologues, orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements of known genes, and the interchange of genetic alterations between organisms is routine and well known in the art. Accordingly, the metabolic alterations enabling biosynthesis of primary alcohols of the invention described herein with reference to a particular organism such as E. coli can be readily applied to other microorganisms, including prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms alike. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will know that a metabolic alteration exemplified in one organism can be applied equally to other organisms.

In some instances, such as when an alternative malonyl-CoA independent FAS constituent enzyme or pathway exists in an unrelated species, primary alcohol biosynthesis can be conferred onto the host species by, for example, exogenous expression of a paralog or paralogs from the unrelated species that catalyzes a similar, yet non-identical metabolic reaction to replace the referenced reaction. Because certain differences among metabolic networks exist between different organisms, those skilled in the art will understand that the actual genes usage between different organisms may differ. However, given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art also will understand that the teachings and methods of the invention can be applied to all microbial organisms using the cognate metabolic alterations to those exemplified herein to construct a microbial organism in a species of interest that will synthesize the primary alcohol products of the invention.

Encoding nucleic acids and species that can be used as sources for conferring malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway capability onto a host microbial organism are exemplified further below. In one exemplary embodiment, the genes fadA and fadB encode a multienzyme complex that exhibits three constituent activities of the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway, namely, ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and enoyl-CoA hydratase activities (Nakahigashi, K. and H. Inokuchi, Nucleic Acids Research 18:4937 (1990); Yang et al., Journal of Bacteriology 173:7405-7406 (1991); Yang et al, Journal of Biological Chemistry 265:10424-10429 (1990); Yang et al., Biochemistry 30:6788-6795 (1990)). The fadI and fadJ genes encode similar activities which can substitute for the above malonyl-CoA independent FAS conferring genes fadA and fadB. These genes are naturally expressed under anaerobic conditions (Campbell and Cronan, supra, (2002)). The nucleic acid sequences for each of the above fad genes are well known in the art and can be accessed in the public databases such as Genbank using the following accession numbers.

fadA YP_026272.1 Escherichia coli fadB NP_418288.1 Escherichia coli fadI NP_416844.1 Escherichia coli fadJ NP_416843.1 Escherichia coli fadR NP_415705.1 Escherichia coli

Other exemplary genes for the ketothiolase step include atoB which can catalyze the reversible condensation of 2 acetyl-CoA molecules (Sato et al., supra, 2007), and its homolog yqeF. Non-E. coli genes that can be used include phaA from R. eutropha (Jenkins, L. S. and W. D. Nunn. Journal of Bacteriology 169:42-52 (1987)), and the two ketothiolases, thiA and thiB, from Clostridium acetobutylicum (Winzer et al., Journal of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology 2:531-541 (2000)). The sequences for these genes can be found at the following Genbank accession numbers:

atoB NP_416728.1 Escherichia coli yqeF NP_417321.2 Escherichia coli phaA YP_725941 Ralstonia eutropha thiA NP_349476.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum thiB NP_149242.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum

An exemplary gene from E. coli which can be used for conferring 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase transformation activity is paaH (Ismail et al., European Journal of Biochemistry 270:3047-3054 (2003)). Non-E. coli genes applicable for conferring this activity include AAO72312.1 from E. gracilis (Winkler et al., Plant Physiology 131:753-762 (2003)), paaC from Pseudomonas putida (Olivera et al., PNAS USA 95:6419-6424 (1998)), paaC from Pseudomonas fluorescens (Di Gennaro et al., Archives of Microbiology 188:117-125 (2007)), and hbd from C. acetobutylicum (Atsumi et al., Metabolic Engineering (2007) and Boynton et al., Journal of Bacteriology 178:3015-3024 (1996)). The sequences for each of these exemplary genes can be found at the following Genbank accession numbers:

paaH NP_415913.1 Escherichia coli AA072312.1 Euglena gracilis paaC NP_745425.1 Pseudomonas putida paaC ABF82235.1 Pseudomonas fluorescens hbd NP_349314.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum

Exemplary genes encoding the enoyl-CoA hydratase step include, for example, maoC (Park and Lee, Journal Bacteriology 185:5391-5397 (2003)), paaF (Ismail et al., European Journal of Biochemistry 270:3047-3054 (2003); Park and Lee, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 113-116:335-346 (2004) and Park and Yup, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 86:681-686 (2004)), and paaG (Ismail et al., European Journal of Biochemistry 270:3047-3054 (2003); Park and Lee, Appl. Biochem. Biotechnol. 113-116:335-346 (2004) and Park and Yup, Biotechnol. Bioeng. 86:681-686 (2004)). Other genes which can be used to produce the gene product catalyzing this step, for example, paaA, paaB, and paaN from P. putida (Olivera et al., PNAS USA 95:6419-6424 (1998)) and P. fluorescens (Di Gennaro et al., Archives of Microbiology 188:117-125 (2007)). The gene product of crt from C. acetobutylicum also can be used (Atsumi et al., Metabolic Engineering (2007) and Boynton et al., Journal of Bacteriology 178: 3015-3024 (1996. The sequences for each of these exemplary genes can be found at the following Genbank accession numbers:

maoC NP_415905.1 Escherichia coli paaF NP_415911.1 Escherichia coli paaG NP_415912.1 Escherichia coli paaA NP_745427.1 Pseudomonas putida paaA ABF82233.1 Pseudomonas fluorescens paaB NP_745426.1 Pseudomonas putida paaB ABF82234.1 Pseudomonas fluorescens paaN NP_745413.1 Pseudomonas putida paaN ABF82246.1 Pseudomonas fluorescens crt NP_349318.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum

An exemplary gene which can be introduced into a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention to confer enoyl-CoA reductase activity is the mitochondrial enoyl-CoA reductase from E. gracilis Hoffmeister et al., supra (2005)). A construct derived from this sequence following the removal of its mitochondrial targeting leader sequence has been cloned and expressed in E. coli. This approach for heterologous expression of membrane targeted polypeptides in a soluble form is well known to those skilled in the art of expressing eukaryotic genes, particularly those with leader sequences that may target the gene product to a specific intracellular compartment, in prokaryotic organisms. A close homolog of this gene, TDE0597, from the prokaryote Treponema denticola represents also can be employed to confer enoyl-CoA reductase activity (Tucci and Martin, FEBS Letters 581:1561-1566 (2007)). Butyryl-CoA dehydrogenase, encoded by bcd from C. acetobutylicum, is a further exemplary enzyme that can be used to confer enoyl-CoA reductase activity onto a host microbial organism of the invention (Atsumi et al., Metabolic Engineering (2007) and Boynton et al., Journal of Bacteriology 178: 3015-3024 (1996)). Alternatively, E. coli genes exhibiting this activity can be obtained using methods well known in the art (see, for example, Mizugaki et al., Chemical & Pharmaceutical Bulletin 30:206-213 (1982) and Nishimaki et al., Journal of Biochemistry 95:1315-1321 (1984)). The sequences for each of the above exemplary genes can be found at the following Genbank accession numbers:

TER Q5EU90.1 Euglena gracilis TDE0597 NP_971211.1 Treponema denticola bcd NP_349317.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum

At least three mitochondrial enoyl-CoA reductase enzymes exist in E. gracilis that similarly are applicable for use in the invention. Each enoyl-CoA reductase enzyme exhibits a unique chain length preference (Inui et al., European Journal of Biochemistry 142:121-126 (1984)), which is particularly useful for dictating the chain length of the desired primary alcohol products of the invention. EST's ELL00002199, ELL00002335, and ELL00002648, which are all annotated as mitochondrial trans-2-enoyl-CoA reductases, can be used to isolate these additional enoyl-CoA reductase genes as described further below.

Those skilled in the art also can obtain nucleic acids encoding any or all of the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway or acyl-reduction pathway enzymes by cloning using known sequences from available sources. For example, any or all of the encoding nucleic acids for the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway can be readily obtained using methods well known in the art from E. gracilis as this pathway has been well characterized in this organism. E. gracilis encoding nucleic acids can be isolated from, for example, an E. graciliscDNA library using probes of known sequence. The probes can be designed with whole or partial DNA sequences from the following EST sequences from the publically available sequence database TBestDB (tbestdb.bcm.umontreal.ca). The nucleic acids generated from this process can be inserted into an appropriate expression vector and transformed into E. coli or other microorganisms to generate primary alcohol production organisms of the invention.

ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase (or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase)

-   -   ELL00002550     -   ELL00002493     -   ELL00000789

3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase

-   -   ELL00000206     -   ELL00002419     -   ELL00006286     -   ELL00006656

enoyl-CoA hydratase

-   -   ELL00005926     -   ELL00001952     -   ELL00002235     -   ELL00006206

enoyl-CoA reductase

-   -   ELL00002199     -   ELL00002335     -   ELL00002648

Alternatively, the above EST sequences can be used to identify homologue polypeptides in GenBank through BLAST search. The resulting homologue polypeptides and their corresponding gene sequences provide additional encoding nucleic acids for transformation into E. coli or other microorganisms to generate the primary alcohol producing organisms of the invention. Listed below are exemplary homologue polypeptide and their gene accession numbers in GenBank which are applicable for use in the non-naturally occurring organisms of the invention.

ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase (or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase) YP_001530041 Desulfococcus oleovorans Hxd3 ZP_02133627 Desulfatibacillum alkenivorans AK-01 ZP_01860900 Bacillus sp. SG-1 YP_001511817 Alkaliphilus oremlandii OhILAs NP_781017 Clostridium tetani E88 YP_001646648 Bacillus weihenstephanensis KBAB4 YP_001322360 Alkaliphilus metalliredigens QYMF YP_001397054 Clostridium kluyveri DSM 555 NP_070026 Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304 YP_001585327 Burkholderia multivorans ATCC 17616 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase AA072312 Euglena gracilis XP_001655993 Aedes aegypti NP_001011073 Xenopus tropicalis NP_001003515 Danio rerio XP_973042 Tribolium castaneum XP_001638329 Nematostella vectensis CAG11476 Tetraodon nigroviridis XP_787188 Strongylocentrotus purpuratus XP_001749481 Monosiga brevicollis MX1 NP_509584 Caenorhabditis elegans XP_572875 Cryptococcus neoformans var enoyl-CoA hydratase XP_844077 Trypanosoma brucei XP_802711 Trypanosoma cruzi strain CL Brener XP_806421 Trypanosoma cruzi strain CL Brener. YP_001669856 Pseudomonas putida GB-1 YP_641317 Mycobacterium sp. MCS YP_959434 Marinobacter aquaeolei VT8 ABK24445 Picea sitchensis XP_640315 Dictyostelium discoideum YP_633978 Myxococcus xanthus DK 1622 YP_467905 Rhizobium etli CFN 42 YP_419997 Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1 YP_001172441 Pseudomonas stutzeri A1501 enoyl-CoA reductase. XP_642118 Dictyostelium discoideum AX4 XP_001639469 Nematostella vectensis XP_001648220 Aedes aegypti XP_974428 Tribolium castaneum XP_535334 Canis lupus familiaris (dog) NP_001016371 Xenopus tropicalis XP_320682 Anopheles gambiae str. PEST ZP_01645699 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia XP_001679449 Caenorhabditis briggsae AF16 ZP_01443601 Roseovarius sp. HTCC2601 XP_395130 Apis mellifera XP_001113746 Macaca mulatta ZP_01485509 Vibrio cholerae V51 ZP_02012479 Opitutaceae bacterium TAV2 ZP_01163033 Photobacterium sp. SKA34 YP_267463 Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H ZP_01114282 Reinekea sp. MED297 ZP_01732824 Flavobacteria bacterium BAL38

As described previously, after the malonyl-CoA independent elongation cycle, the resulting acyl-CoA can be reduced to produce a primary alcohol by either a single enzyme or pair of enzymes that exhibit acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase activities. Exemplary genes that encode enzymes for catalyzing the reduction of an acyl-CoA to its corresponding aldehyde include the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus acr1 encoding a fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Reiser and Somerville, Journal of Bacteriology 179:2969-2975 (1997)), the Acinetobacter sp. M-1 fatty acyl-CoA reductase (Ishige et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 68:1192-1195 (2002)), and the sucD gene from Clostridium kluyveri (Sohling and Gottschalk, Journal Bacteriology 178:871-880 (1996)).

acr1 YP_047869.1 Acinetobacter calcoaceticus AAC45217 Acinetobacter baylyi BAB85476.1 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 sucD P38947.1 Clostridium kluyveri

Exemplary genes encoding enzymes that catalyze the conversion of an aldehyde to alcohol (i.e., alcohol dehydrogenase or equivalently aldehyde reductase) include alrA encoding a medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase for C2-C14 (Tani et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 66:5231-5235 (2000)), ADH2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Atsumi et al., Nature 451:86-89 (2008)), and yqhD from E. coli which has preference for molecules longer than C3 (Sulzenbacher et al., Journal of Molecular Biology 342:489-502 (2004)).

alrA BAB12273.1 Acinetobacter sp. Strain M-1 ADH2 NP_014032.1 Saccharymyces cerevisiae yqhD NP_417484.1 Escherichia coli

Alternatively, the fatty acyl-CoA can be reduced in one step by a fatty alcohol forming acyl-CoA reductase or any other enzyme with dual acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase activity. For example, the jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) FAR encodes an alcohol-forming fatty acyl-CoA reductase and its overexpression in E. coli resulted in FAR activity and the accumulation of fatty alcohol (Metz et al., Plant Physiology 122:635-644 (2000)). The reductase with narrow substrate chain-length specificities will also function as additional control for product chain-length. Additional gene candidates include the E. coli adhE (Kessler et al., FEBS Letters 281:59-63 (2000)) and C. acetobutylicum bdh I and bdh II (Walter et al., Journal of Bacteriology 174:7149-7158 (1992)) which can reduce acetyl-CoA and butyryl-CoA to ethanol and butanol, respectively.

FAR AAD38039.1 Simmondsia chinensis adhE NP_415757.1 Escherichia coli bdh I NP_349892.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum bdh II NP_349891.1 Clostridium acetobutylicum

In addition, the E. gracilis nucleic acid sequences encoding enzymes for the reduction step can be obtained and transformed into a host as described previously for the malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway encoding nucleic acids. Isolated from an E. gracilis cDNA library using probes, designed with whole or partial DNA sequences from the following EST sequences from TBestDB (tbestdb.bcm.umontreal.ca) can be performed as described previously.

aldehyde dehydrogenase

-   -   ELL00002572     -   ELL00002581     -   ELL00000108

In addition to the above exemplary encoding nucleic acids, nucleic acids other than those within the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathways of the invention also can be introduced into a host organism for further production of primary alcohols. For example, the Ralstonia eutropha BktB and PhbB genes catalyze the condensation of butyryl-CoA and acetyl-CoA to form β-keto-hexanoyl-CoA and the reduction of β-keto-hexanoyl-CoA to 3-hydroxy-hexanoyl-CoA (Fukui et al., Biomacromolecules 3:618-624 (2002)). To improve the production of primary alcohols, exogenous DNA sequences encoding for these specific enzymes can be expressed in the production host of interest. Furthermore, the above described enzymes can be subjected to directed evolution to generate improved versions of these enzymes with high activity and high substrate specificity. A similar approach also can be utilized with any or all other enzymatic steps in the primary alcohol producing pathways of the invention to, for example, improve enzymatic activity and/or specificity and/or to generate long chain alcohols of a predetermined chain length or lengths.

In addition, fatty acyl-CoA and fatty alcohols generated as described above can be applied to produce esters of various lengths. These esters can be formed between: 1) fatty acyl-CoA and short-chain alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, propanol, etc.; 2) fatty alcohols and short-chain acyl-CoA such as formyl-CoA, acetyl-CoA, and propionyl-CoA, etc.; 3) fatty acyl-CoA and fatty alcohols as shown in the following equations. fatty acyl-CoA+short-chain alcohols→fatty esters+CoA fatty alcohols+short-chain acyl-CoA→fatty esters+CoA fatty acyl-CoA+fatty alcohols=wax→CoA

The fatty (or long-chain) alcohols can be synthesized intracellularly by the pathways described herein or can be added to the medium and taken up by the engineered microbe. Similarly, short-chain alcohols can be added to the medium or produced endogenously. Ethanol is an exemplary short chain alcohol that is naturally produced by many microorganisms including Escherichia coli and Saccahyromyces cerevisiae. Exemplary fatty esters include, but not limited to, fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs), acetyl esters, and wax. Such molecules have broad applications including in food, personal care, coatings, surfactants, and biodiesel (Gerhard Knothe, Energy & Fuels 2008, 22, 1358-1364). Fatty esters, in this context, are differentiated from wax by the size of the hydrocarbon chain on each side of the ester bond. Waxes have long chain hydrocarbons on each side of the ester bond, whereas fatty esters have one short chain and one long chain hydrocarbon on each side of the ester bond, respectively.

The reactions to produce these esters can be catalyzed by enzymes with acyl-CoA:alcohol transacylase activities. Exemplary enzymes for catalyzing the formation of fatty esters include the acyl-CoA:fatty alcohol acyltransferase (wax ester synthase, WS, EC 2.3.1.75) and acetyl-CoA:alcohol O-acetyltransferase (EC 2.3.1.84). Exemplary genes coding for these enzymes include the Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 atfA encoding a bifunctional enzyme with both wax ester synthase (WS) and acyl-CoA: diacylglycerol acyltransferase (DGAT) activities (Kalscheuer et al. A J Biol Chem 2003, 278: 8075-8082.); the Simmondsia chinensis gene AAD38041 encoding a WS required for the accumulation of waxes in jojoba seeds (Lardizabal et al. Plant Physiology 2000, 122: 645-655.); the Alcanivorax borkumensis atfA1 and atfA2 encoding bifunctional WS/DGAT enzymes (Kalscheuer et al. J Bacteriol 2007, 189: 918-928); the Fragaria×ananassa AAT encoding an alcohol acetyltransferasae (Noichinda et al. Food Sci Technol Res 1999, 5: 239-242.); the Rosa hybrid cultivar AAT1 encoding an alcohol acetyltransferase (Guterman et al. Plant Mol Biol 2006, 60: 555-563.); and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATF1 and ATF2 encoding alcohol acetyltransferases (Mason et al. Yeast 2000, 16: 1287-1298).

atfA Q8GGG1 Acinetobacter sp. ADP1 AAD38041 Simmondsia chinensis atfA1 YP_694462 Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 atfA2 YP_693524 Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 AAT AAG13130 Fragaria x ananassa AAT1 Q5I6B5 Rosa hybrid cultivar ATF1 P40353 Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATF2 P53296 Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Host microbial organisms can be selected from, and the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms generated in, for example, bacteria, yeast, fungus or any of a variety of other microorganisms applicable to fermentation processes. Exemplary bacteria include species selected from E. coli, Rhodococcus opacus, Ralstonia eutropha, Klebsiella oxytoca, Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens, Actinobacillus succinogenes, Mannheimia succiniciproducens, Rhizobium etli, Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Gluconobacter oxydans, Zymomonas mobilis, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptomyces coelicolor, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas putida and E. gracilis. Exemplary yeasts or fungi include species selected from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Kluyveromyces lactis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger and Pichia pastoris.

Methods for constructing and testing the expression levels of a non-naturally occurring primary alcohol-producing host can be performed, for example, by recombinant and detection methods well known in the art. Such methods can be found described in, for example, Sambrook et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, Third Ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York (2001); Ausubel et al., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley and Sons, Baltimore, Md. (1999). For example, nucleic acids encoding enzymes in the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway can be introduced stably or transiently into a host cell using techniques well known in the art including, but not limited to, conjugation, electroporation, chemical transformation, transduction, transfection, and ultrasound transformation. For exogenous expression in E. coli or other prokaryotic cells, for example, mitochondrial genes will encode an N-terminal targeting signals, which can be removed before transformation into host cells. For exogenous expression in yeast or other eukaryotic cells, genes can be expressed in the cytosol without the addition of the targeting sequence, or alternatively, can be targeted to mitochondrion with the addition of mitochondrial targeting signal functional in the host organism. Furthermore, genes can be subjected for codon optimization with techniques well known in the art, to achieve optimal expression of the one or more malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway gene products.

An expression vector or vectors can be constructed to harbor one or more malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway encoding nucleic acids operably linked to expression control sequences functional in the host organism. Expression vectors applicable for use in the microbial host organisms of the invention include, for example, plasmids, phage vectors, viral vectors and artificial chromosomes. Selectable marker genes also can be included that, for example, provide resistance to antibiotics or toxins, complement auxotrophic deficiencies, or supply critical nutrients not in the culture media. Expression control sequences can include constitutive and inducible promoters, transcription enhancers, transcription terminators, and the like which are well known in the art. When two or more exogenous nucleic acids encoding are to be co-expressed, both nucleic acids can be inserted, for example, into a single expression vector or in separate expression vectors. For single vector expression, the encoding nucleic acids can be operationally linked to one common expression control sequence or linked to different expression control sequences, such as one inducible promoter and one constitutive promoter. The transformation of exogenous DNA sequences involved in a metabolic or synthetic pathway will be confirmed using methods well known in the art.

Primary alcohol production can be detected and/or monitored using methods well known to those skilled in the art. For example, final product of primary alcohol and/or intermediates such as acyl-CoA and organic acids can be analyzed by HPLC, GC-MS and LC-MS. For example, primary alcohols can be separated by HPLC using a Spherisorb 5 ODS1 column and a mobile phase of 70% 10 mM phosphate buffer (pH=7) and 30% methanol, and detected using a UV detector at 215 nm (Hennessy et al. 2004, J. Forensic Sci. 46(6):1-9). The release or secretion of primary alcohol into the culture medium or fermentation broth also can be detected using these procedures. Activities of one or more enzymes in the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or acyl-reduction pathway also can be measured using methods well known in the art.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention are constructed using methods well known in the art as exemplified above to exogenously express at least one nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway enzyme in sufficient amounts to produce primary alcohol. Following the teachings and guidance provided herein, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can achieve biosynthesis of greater than that which can be synthesized in naturally occurring organisms. Generally, the intracellular concentration of, for example, octanol is about 54 μg/L and decanol is about 148 μg/L.

As described further below, one exemplary growth condition for achieving biosynthesis of primary alcohols includes anaerobic culture or fermentation conditions. In certain embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be sustained, cultured or fermented under anaerobic or substantially anaerobic conditions. Briefly, anaerobic conditions refers to an environment devoid of oxygen. Substantially anaerobic conditions include, for example, a culture, batch fermentation or continuous fermentation such that the dissolved oxygen concentration in the medium remains between 0 and 10% of saturation. Substantially anaerobic conditions also includes growing or resting cells in liquid medium or on solid agar inside a sealed chamber maintained with an atmosphere of less than 1% oxygen. The percent of oxygen can be maintained by, for example, sparging the culture with an N₂/CO₂ mixture or other suitable non-oxygen gas or gases.

The invention further provides a method for the production of primary alcohols. The method includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism have having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway comprising at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol under substantially anaerobic conditions for a sufficient period of time to produce said primary alcohol, said malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway comprising ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase, said acyl-reduction pathway comprising an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase.

Any of the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms described previously can be cultured to produce the biosynthetic products of the invention. For example, the primary alcohol producers can be cultured for the biosynthetic production of its engineered target primary alcohol. The primary alcohol can be isolated or isolated and further utilized in a wide variety of products and procedures.

In some embodiments, culture conditions include anaerobic or substantially anaerobic growth or maintenance conditions. Exemplary anaerobic conditions have been described previously and are well known in the art. Exemplary anaerobic conditions for fermentation processes are described below and are well known in the art. Any of these conditions can be employed with the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms as well as other anaerobic conditions well known in the art.

The culture conditions can include, for example, liquid culture procedures as well as fermentation and other large scale culture procedures. As described further below in the Examples, particularly useful yields of the biosynthetic products of the invention can be obtained under anaerobic or substantially anaerobic culture conditions. Exemplary growth procedures include, for example, fed-batch fermentation and batch separation; fed-batch fermentation and continuous separation, or continuous fermentation and continuous separation. All of these processes are well known in the art.

Fermentation procedures are particularly useful for the biosynthetic production of commercial quantities of primary alcohols. Generally, and as with non-continuous culture procedures, the continuous and/or near-continuous production of primary alcohols will include culturing a non-naturally occurring primary alcohol producing organism of the invention in sufficient neutrients and medium to sustain and/or nearly sustain growth in an exponential phase. Continuous culture under such conditions can be include, for example, 1 day, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 days or more. Additionally, continuous culture can include 1 week, 2, 3, 4 or 5 or more weeks and up to several months. Alternatively, organisms of the invention can be cultured for hours, if suitable for a particular application. It is to be understood that the continuous and/or near-continuous culture conditions also can include all time intervals in between these exemplary periods.

Fermentation procedures are well known in the art. Briefly, fermentation for the biosynthetic production of primary alcohol products of the invention can be utilized in, for example, fed-batch fermentation and batch separation; fed-batch fermentation and continuous separation, or continuous fermentation and continuous separation. Examples of batch and continuous fermentation procedures well known in the art are exemplified further below in the Examples.

In a further embodiment, the primary alcohol producing microbial organisms of the invention utilize renewable feedstocks and carbon-containing gas as carbon sources for growth. Employing these alternative materials as a feedstock is particularly useful because they are beneficial from an environmental standpoint and lower production costs of bioprocess-derived products such as the primary alcohols of the invention.

Renewable feedstocks useful for growth of the primary alcohol producing organisms of the invention, including fermentation processes with the modified organisms of the invention, can include any regenerative raw material which can be used by the cell as a supply a carbon or other energy source. In general, renewable feedstock are derived from living organisms or their metabolic byproducts including material derived from biomass, often consisting of underutilized components like chaff. Agricultural products specifically grown for use as renewable feedstocks and useful in the methods of the invention include, for example, corn, soybeans and cotton; flaxseed and rapeseed; sugar cane and palm oil. Renewable feedstocks that can be used therefore include an array of carbohydrates, fats and proteins derived from agricultural and/or animal matter which can be harnessed by the primary alcohol producing organisms of the invention as a source for carbon.

Plant-derived biomass which is available as an energy source on a sustainable basis includes, for example, herbaceous and woody energy crops, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, and other waste materials including some municipal wastes (see, for example, the URL 1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/information_resources.html, which includes a database describing more than 150 exemplary kinds of biomass sources). Exemplary types of biomasses that can be used as feedstocks in the methods of the invention include cellulosic biomass, hemicellulosic biomass and lignin feedstocks or portions of feedstocks. Such biomass feedstocks contain, for example, carbohydrate substrates useful as carbon sources such as glucose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, mannose, fructose and starch. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that renewable feedstocks and biomass other than those exemplified above also can be used for culturing the microbial organisms of the invention for the production of a wide variety of primary alcohols.

In addition to renewable feedstocks such as those exemplified above, the primary alcohol producing microbial organisms of the invention also can be modified for growth on syngas as its source of carbon. In this specific embodiment, one or more proteins or enzymes are expressed in the primary alcohol producing organisms to provide a metabolic pathway for utilization of syngas or other gaseous carbon source.

Synthesis gas, also known as syngas or producer gas, is the major product of gasification of coal and of carbonaceous materials such as biomass materials, including agricultural crops and residues. Syngas is a mixture primarily of H₂ and CO and can be obtained from the gasification of any organic feedstock, including but not limited to coal, coal oil, natural gas, biomass, and waste organic matter. Gasification is generally carried out under a high fuel to oxygen ratio. Although largely H₂ and CO, syngas can also include CO₂ and other gases in smaller quantities. Thus, synthesis gas provides a cost effective source of gaseous carbon such as CO and, additionally, CO₂.

The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway catalyzes the conversion of CO and H₂ to acetyl-CoA and other products such as acetate. Organisms capable of utilizing CO and syngas also generally have the capability of utilizing CO₂ and CO₂/H₂ mixtures through the same basic set of enzymes and transformations encompassed by the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. H₂-dependent conversion of CO₂ to acetate by microorganisms was recognized long before it was revealed that CO also could be used by the same organisms and that the same pathways were involved. Many acetogens have been shown to grow in the presence of CO₂ and produce compounds such as acetate as long as hydrogen is present to supply the necessary reducing equivalents (see for example, Drake, Acetogenesis, pp. 3-60 Chapman and Hall, New York, (1994)). This can be summarized by the following equation: 2CO₂+4H₂+nADP+nPi→CH₃COOH+2H₂O+nATP

Hence, non-naturally occurring microorganisms possessing the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway can utilize CO₂ and H₂ mixtures as well for the production of acetyl-CoA and other desired products.

The Wood-Ljungdahl pathway is well known in the art and consists of 12 reactions which can be separated into two branches: (1) methyl branch and (2) carbonyl branch. The methyl branch converts syngas to methyl-tetrahydrofolate (methyl-THF) whereas the carbonyl branch converts methyl-THF to acetyl-CoA. The reactions in the methyl branch are catalyzed in order by the following enzymes: ferredoxin oxidoreductase, formate dehydrogenase, formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase, methenyltetrahydrofolate cyclodehydratase, methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. The reactions in the carbonyl branch are catalyzed in order by the following enzymes: cobalamide corrinoid/iron-sulfur protein, methyltransferase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, acetyl-CoA synthase, acetyl-CoA synthase disulfide reductase and hydrogenase. Following the teachings and guidance provided above for introducing a sufficient number of encoding nucleic acids to complete the either or both the malonyl-CoA independent FAS and/or the acyl-reduction pathway, those skilled in the art will understand that the same engineering design also can be performed with respect to introducing at least the nucleic acids encoding the Wood-Ljungdahl enzymes absent in the host organism. Therefore, introduction of one or more encoding nucleic acids into the microbial organisms of the invention such that the modified organism contains the complete Wood-Ljungdahl pathway will confer syngas utilization ability.

The invention is also directed, in part, to the design and creation of cells and organisms having growth-coupled production of LCA. In one embodiment, the invention utilizes optimization-based approaches based on in silico stoichiometric model of Escherichia coli metabolism that identify metabolic designs for optimal production of LCA. A bilevel programming framework, OptKnock, is applied within an iterative algorithm to predict multiple sets of gene disruptions, that collectively result in the growth-coupled production of LCA. The results described herein indicate that combinations of strategically placed gene deletions or functional disruptions of genes significantly improve the LCA production capabilities of Escherichia coli and other cells or organisms. The strain design strategies are equally applicable if an organism other than E. coli is chosen as the production host, even if the organism naturally lacks the activity or exhibits low activity of a subset of the gene products marked for disruption. In those cases, disruptions must only be introduced to eliminate or lessen the enzymatic activities of the gene products that are naturally present in the chosen production host. Growth-coupled production of LCA for the in silico designs are confirmed by construction of strains having the designed metabolic genotype. These metabolically engineered cells or organisms also can be subjected to adaptive evolution to further augment growth-coupled product production.

The invention is also directed, in part, to the design and creation of cells and organisms that produce long chain alcohols, LCAs based on in silico stoichiometric model of Saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolism. One skilled in the art will recognize the ability to also produce LCAs by non-growth-coupled production by providing a non-producing growth phase, followed by a non-growth production phase, for example. The results described herein indicate that combinations of gene deletions or functional disruptions of genes significantly improve the LCA production capabilities of Saccharomyces cerevisaie and other cells of eukaryotic organisms and eukaryotic microbial organisms. The strain design pathways are equally applicable if a eukaryotic microbial organism other than S. cerevisiae is chosen as the production host, even if the organism naturally lacks the activity or exhibits low activity of a subset of the gene products marked for disruption. In the latter case, disruptions can be introduced to eliminate or lessen the enzymatic activities of the gene products that are naturally present in the chosen production host. In some embodiments, growth-coupled production of LCA for the in silico determined metabolic pathways is confirmed by construction of strains having the designed metabolic genotype. These metabolically engineered cells or organisms can also be subjected to adaptive evolution to further augment growth-coupled product production. In some embodiments, the engineered cells or organisms can also incorporate additional copies of beneficial genes to increase flux through a particular metabolic pathway. Alternatively, exogenous gene insertions from another organism can be used to install functionality that is not present in the host organism.

In some embodiments, the designed LCA production pathway utilizes a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis pathway coupled with reduction of the fatty acid to form primary alcohol as shown in FIG. 1. The malonyl-CoA independent LCA production pathway (MI-LCA pathway) comprises the malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis steps and the acyl-CoA reduction steps. An engineered microorganism possessing the MI-LCA pathway will convert low cost renewable feedstocks, such as glucose and sucrose, to acetyl-CoA through glycolysis. Acetyl-CoA then is used as both primer and extension units in an elongation cycle that involves the ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase, and enoyl-CoA reductase. At the end of each elongation cycle, an acyl-CoA is formed that is one C₂ unit longer than the acyl-CoA entering the elongation cycle. The acyl-CoA with a desired chain-length is then reduced through the combination of acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase or the fatty alcohol forming acyl-CoA reductase to form the desired primary alcohol. The carbon chain-length of the LCA can be controlled by chain-length specific enoyl-CoA reductase, ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, and/or acyl-CoA reductase.

The MI-LCA pathway has the advantage of better product and ATP yields than that through the typical energy-intensive fatty acid synthesis pathways for LCA production. For example, the maximum theoretical yield for dodecanol (C₁₂) using the MI-LCA pathway is 0.333 mol per mol of glucose consumed under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions: 3C₆H₁₂O₆→C₁₂H₂₆O+6CO₂+5H₂O

Additionally, the energy and redox characteristics of the MI-LCA pathway make it suited for the creation of strains that couple LCA production to growth using OptKnock algorithms (Burgard, A. P., P. Pharkya, and C. D. Maranas, Optknock: a bilevel programming framework for identifying gene knockout strategies for microbial strain optimization. Biotechnol Bioeng, 2003. 84(6): p. 647-57; Pharkya, P., A. P. Burgard, and C. D. Maranas, Exploring the overproduction of amino acids using the bilevel optimization framework OptKnock. Biotechnol Bioeng, 2003. 84(7): p. 887-99; Pharkya, P., A. P. Burgard, and C.D. Maranas, OptStrain: a computational framework for redesign of microbial production systems. Genome Res, 2004. 14(11): p. 2367-76.). The resulting growth-coupled production strains will be inherently stable, self-optimizing, and suited for batch, fed-batch, and continuous process designs.

In some embodiments, the invention is directed to an integrated computational and engineering platform for developing metabolically altered microorganism strains having enhanced LCA producing characteristics. Strains identified via the computational component of the platform are put into actual production by genetically engineering the predicted metabolic alterations which lead to the enhanced production of LCA. Production of the desired product is coupled to optimal growth of the microorganism to optimize yields of this product during fermentation. In yet another embodiment, strains exhibiting growth-coupled production of LCA are further subjected to adaptive evolution to further augment product biosynthesis. The levels of growth-coupled product production following adaptive evolution also can be predicted by the computational component of the system where, in this specific embodiment, the elevated product levels are realized only following evolution.

In some embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism, that includes one or more gene disruptions. The disruptions occur in genes encoding an enzyme that couples LCA production to growth of the organism when the gene disruption reduces the activity of the enzyme, such that the gene disruptions confer stable growth-coupled production of LCA onto the non-naturally occurring organism.

In particular embodiments, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism, that includes one or more gene disruptions. The one or more gene disruptions occur in genes that encode enzymes that include, for example a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase or a mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase. These gene disruptions confer production of long chain alcohols in the cytosol or mitochondrion (vide infra) of the organism.

Further, the present invention provides methods of producing such non-naturally microbial organisms having stable growth-coupled production of LCA. For LCA production, for example, the method includes: (a) identifying in silico a set of metabolic modifications requiring LCA production during cell growth, and (b) genetically modifying a microorganism to contain the set of metabolic modifications requiring LCA production.

One consideration for bioprocessing is whether to use a batch or continuous fermentation scheme. One difference between the two schemes that will influence the amount of product produced is the presence of a preparation, lag, and stationary phase for the batch scheme in addition to the exponential growth phase. In contrast, continuous processes are kept in a state of constant exponential growth and, if properly operated, can run for many months at a time. For growth-associated and mixed-growth-associated product formation, continuous processes provide much higher productivities (i.e., dilution rate times cell mass) due to the elimination of the preparation, lag, and stationary phases. For example, given the following reasonable assumptions: Monod kinetics (i.e., μ=μ_(m) ·S/(K _(s) +S)) μ_(m)=1.0 hr⁻¹ final cell concentration/initial cell concentration=20 t _(prep) +t _(lag) +t _(stat)=5 hr feed concentration of limiting nutrient>>Ks increased productivity from a continuous process has been estimated at 8-fold, Shuler et al, Prentice Hall, Inc.: Upper Saddle River, N.J., 245-247.

Despite advantages in productivity, many more batch processes are in operation than continuous processes for a number of reasons. First, for non-growth associated product formation (e.g., penicillin), the productivity of a batch system may significantly exceed that of a continuous process because the latter would have to operate at very low dilution rates. Next, production strains generally have undergone modifications to their genetic material to improve their biochemical or protein production capabilities. These specialized strains are likely to grow less rapidly than their parental complements whereas continuous processes such as those employing chemostats (fermenters operated in continuous mode) impose large selection pressures for the fastest growing cells. Cells containing recombinant DNA or carrying point mutations leading to the desired overproduction phenotype are susceptible to back-mutation into the original less productive parental strain. It also is possible for strains having single gene deletions to develop compensatory mutations that will tend to restore the wild-type growth phenotype. The faster growing cells usually out-compete their more productive counterparts for limiting nutrients, drastically reducing productivity. Batch processes, on the other hand, limit the number of generations available by not reusing cells at the end of each cycle, thus decreasing the probability of the production strain reverting back to its wild-type phenotype. Finally, continuous processes are more difficult to operate long-term due to potential engineering obstacles such as equipment failure and foreign organism contamination. The consequences of such failures also are much more considerable for a continuous process than with a batch culture.

For small-volume production of specialty chemicals and/or proteins, the productivity increases of continuous processes rarely outweigh the risks associated with strain stability and reliability. However, for the production of large-volume, growth-associated products such as LCA, the increases in productivity for a continuous process can result in significant economic gains when compared to a batch process. Although the engineering obstacles associated with continuous bioprocess operation would always be present, the strain stability concerns can be overcome through metabolic engineering strategies that reroute metabolic pathways to reduce or avoid negative selective pressures and favor production of the target product during the exponential growth phase.

One computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring growth-coupled production of a product is the OptKnock computational framework, Burgard et al., Biotechnol Bioeng, 84: 647-57 (2003). OptKnock is a metabolic modeling and simulation program that suggests gene disruption strategies that result in genetically stable microorganisms which overproduce the target product. Specifically, the framework examines the complete metabolic and/or biochemical network of a microorganism in order to suggest genetic manipulations that force the desired biochemical to become a byproduct of cell growth. By coupling biochemical production with cell growth through strategically placed gene deletions or other functional gene disruption, the growth selection pressures imposed on the engineered strains after long periods of time in a bioreactor lead to improvements in performance as a result of the compulsory growth-coupled biochemical production.

The concept of growth-coupled biochemical production can be visualized in the context of the biochemical production envelopes of a typical metabolic network calculated using an in silico model. These limits are obtained by fixing the uptake rate(s) of the limiting substrate(s) to their experimentally measured value(s) and calculating the maximum and minimum rates of biochemical production at each attainable level of growth. Although exceptions exist, typically the production of a desired biochemical is in direct competition with biomass formation for intracellular resources. Thus, enhanced rates of biochemical production will necessarily result in sub-maximal growth rates. The disruptions suggested by OptKnock are designed to restrict the allowable solution boundaries forcing a change in metabolic behavior from the wild-type strain as depicted in FIG. 2. Although the actual solution boundaries for a given strain will expand or contract as the substrate uptake rate(s) increase or decrease, each experimental point should lie within its calculated solution boundary. Plots such as these enable one to visualize how close strains are to their performance limits or, in other words, how much room is available for improvement. The OptKnock framework has already been able to identify promising gene disruption strategies for biochemical overproduction, (Burgard, A. P., P. Pharkya, and C. D. Maranas, Biotechnol Bioeng, 84(6):647-657 (2003); Pharkya, P., A. P. Burgard, and C. D. Maranas, Biotechnol Bioeng, 84(7):887-899 (2003)) and establishes a systematic framework that will naturally encompass future improvements in metabolic and regulatory modeling frameworks.

Lastly, when gene deletions are constructed there is a negligible possibility of the designed strains reverting to their wild-type states because the genes selected by OptKnock are to be completely removed from the genome.

Briefly, OptKnock is a term used herein to refer to a computational method and system for modeling cellular metabolism. The OptKnock program relates to a framework of models and methods that incorporate particular constraints into flux balance analysis (FBA) models. These constraints include, for example, qualitative kinetic information, qualitative regulatory information, and/or DNA microarray experimental data. OptKnock also computes solutions to various metabolic problems by, for example, tightening the flux boundaries derived through flux balance models and subsequently probing the performance limits of metabolic networks in the presence of gene additions or disruptions. OptKnock computational framework allows the construction of model formulations that enable an effective query of the performance limits of metabolic networks and provides methods for solving the resulting mixed-integer linear programming problems. The metabolic modeling and simulation methods referred to herein as OptKnock are described in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/043,440, filed Jan. 10, 2002, and in International Patent No. PCT/US02/00660, filed Jan. 10, 2002.

Another computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring growth-coupled production of a product is metabolic modeling and simulation system termed SimPheny®. This computational method and system is described in, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/173,547, filed Jun. 14, 2002, and in International Patent Application No. PCT/US03/18838, filed Jun. 13, 2003.

SimPheny® is a computational system that can be used to produce a network model in silico and to simulate the flux of mass, energy or charge through the chemical reactions of a biological system to define a solution space that contains any and all possible functionalities of the chemical reactions in the system, thereby determining a range of allowed activities for the biological system. This approach is referred to as constraints-based modeling because the solution space is defined by constraints such as the known stoichiometry of the included reactions as well as reaction thermodynamic and capacity constraints associated with maximum fluxes through reactions. The space defined by these constraints can be interrogated to determine the phenotypic capabilities and behavior of the biological system or of its biochemical components. Analysis methods such as convex analysis, linear programming and the calculation of extreme pathways as described, for example, in Schilling et al., J. Theon. Biol. 203:229-248 (2000); Schilling et al., Biotech. Bioeng. 71:286-306 (2000) and Schilling et al., Biotech. Prog. 15:288-295 (1999), can be used to determine such phenotypic capabilities.

As described above, one constraints-based method used in the computational programs applicable to the invention is flux balance analysis. Flux balance analysis is based on flux balancing in a steady state condition and can be performed as described in, for example, Varma and Palsson, Biotech. Bioeng. 12:994-998 (1994). Flux balance approaches have been applied to reaction networks to simulate or predict systemic properties of, for example, adipocyte metabolism as described in Fell and Small, J. Biochem. 138:781-786 (1986), acetate secretion from E. coli under ATP maximization conditions as described in Majewski and Domach, Biotech. Bioeng. 35:732-738 (1990) or ethanol secretion by yeast as described in Vanrolleghem et al., Biotech. Prog. 12:434-448 (1996). Additionally, this approach can be used to predict or simulate the growth of S. cerevisiae on a variety of single-carbon sources as well as the metabolism of H. influenzae as described in Edwards and Palsson, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 97:5528-5533 (2000), Edwards and Palsson, J. Bio. Chem. 274:17410-17416 (1999) and Edwards et al., Nature Biotech. 19:125-130 (2001).

Once the solution space has been defined, it can be analyzed to determine possible solutions under various conditions. This computational approach is consistent with biological realities because biological systems are flexible and can reach the same result in many different ways. Biological systems are designed through evolutionary mechanisms that have been restricted by fundamental constraints that all living systems must face. Therefore, constraints-based modeling strategy embraces these general realities. Further, the ability to continuously impose further restrictions on a network model via the tightening of constraints results in a reduction in the size of the solution space, thereby enhancing the precision with which physiological performance or phenotype can be predicted.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will be able to apply various computational frameworks for metabolic modeling and simulation to design and implement growth-coupled production of a biochemical product. Such metabolic modeling and simulation methods include, for example, the computational systems exemplified above as SimPheny® and OptKnock. For simplicity in illustrating the invention, the methods and strains will be described herein with reference to the OptKnock computation framework for modeling and simulation. Those skilled in the art will know how to apply the identification, design and implementation of the metabolic alterations using OptKnock to any of such other metabolic modeling and simulation computational frameworks and methods well known in the art.

The ability of a cell or organism to couple growth to the production of a biochemical product can be illustrated in the context of the biochemical production limits of a typical metabolic network calculated using an in silico model. These limits are obtained by fixing the uptake rate(s) of the limiting substrate(s) to their experimentally measured value(s) and calculating the maximum and minimum rates of biochemical production at each attainable level of growth. As shown in FIG. 2, the production of a desired biochemical generally is in direct competition with biomass formation for intracellular resources. Under these circumstances, enhanced rates of biochemical production will necessarily result in sub-maximal growth rates. The disruptions suggested by the above metabolic modeling and simulation programs such as OptKnock are designed to restrict the allowable solution boundaries forcing a change in metabolic behavior from the wild-type strain as depicted in FIG. 2. Although the actual solution boundaries for a given strain will expand or contract as the substrate uptake rate(s) increase or decrease, each experimental point will lie within its calculated solution boundary. Plots such as these enable accurate predictions of how close the designed strains are to their performance limits which also indicates how much room is available for improvement.

The OptKnock mathematical framework is exemplified herein for pinpointing gene disruptions leading to growth-coupled biochemical production as illustrated in FIG. 2. The procedure builds upon constraint-based metabolic modeling which narrows the range of possible phenotypes that a cellular system can display through the successive imposition of governing physico-chemical constraints, Price et al., Nat Rev Microbiol, 2: 886-97 (2004). As described above, constraint-based models and simulations are well known in the art and generally invoke the optimization of a particular cellular objective, subject to network stoichiometry, to suggest a likely flux distribution.

Briefly, the maximization of a cellular objective quantified as an aggregate reaction flux for a steady state metabolic network comprising a set N={1, . . . , N} of metabolites and a set M={1, . . . , M} of metabolic reactions is expressed mathematically as follows:

$\begin{matrix} {maximize} & v_{{cellular}\mspace{14mu}{objective}} & \; \\ {{subject}\mspace{14mu}{to}} & {{{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{M}{S_{ij}v_{j}}} = 0},} & {\forall{i \in N}} \\ \; & {v_{substrate} = {v_{{substrate}\_{uptake}}\;{mmol}\text{/}{{g{DW}} \cdot {hr}}}} & {{\forall{i \in \begin{Bmatrix} {limiting} \\ {{substrate}(s)} \end{Bmatrix}}}\mspace{14mu}} \\ \; & {v_{atp} \geq {v_{{atp}\_{main}}{mmol}\text{/}{{g{DW}} \cdot {hr}}}} & \; \\ \; & {{v_{j} \geq 0},} & {\forall{j \in \begin{Bmatrix} {{irrev}.} \\ {reactions} \end{Bmatrix}}} \end{matrix}$

where S_(ij) is the stoichiometric coefficient of metabolite i in reaction j, v_(j) is the flux of reaction j, v_(substrate) _(—) _(uptake) represents the assumed or measured uptake rate(s) of the limiting substrate(s), and v_(atp main) is the non-growth associated ATP maintenance requirement. The vector v includes both internal and external fluxes. In this study, the cellular objective is often assumed to be a drain of biosynthetic precursors in the ratios required for biomass formation, Neidhardt, F. C. et al., 2nd ed. 1996, Washington, D.C.: ASM Press. 2 v. (xx, 2822, 1xxvi). The fluxes are generally reported per 1 gDW·hr (gram of dry weight times hour) such that biomass formation is expressed as g biomass produced/gDW·hr or 1/hr.

The modeling of gene deletions, and thus reaction elimination, first employs the incorporation of binary variables into the constraint-based approach framework, Burgard et al., Biotechnol Bioeng, 74: 364-375 (2001), Burgard et al., Biotechnol Prog, 17: 791-797 (2001). These binary variables,

$y_{j} = \left\{ {\begin{matrix} {1,} & {{if}\mspace{14mu}{reaction}\mspace{14mu}{flux}\mspace{14mu} v_{j}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{active}} \\ {0,} & {{{if}\mspace{14mu}{reaction}\mspace{14mu}{flux}\mspace{14mu} v_{j}\mspace{14mu}{is}\mspace{14mu}{not}\mspace{14mu}{active}},} \end{matrix}{\forall{j \in M}}} \right.$ assume a value of 1 if reaction j is active and a value of 0 if it is inactive. The following constraint, v _(j) ^(min) ·y _(j) ≦v _(j) ≦v _(j) ^(max) ·y _(j) , ∀j ε M ensures that reaction flux v_(j) is set to zero only if variable y_(j) is equal to zero. Alternatively, when y_(j) is equal to one, v_(j) is free to assume any value between a lower v_(j) ^(min) and an upper v_(j) ^(max) bound. Here, v_(j) ^(min) and v_(j) ^(max) are identified by minimizing and maximizing, respectively, every reaction flux subject to the network constraints described above, Mahadevan et al., Metab Eng, 5: 264-76 (2003).

Optimal gene/reaction disruptions are identified by solving a bilevel optimization problem that chooses the set of active reactions (y_(j)=1) such that an optimal growth solution for the resulting network overproduces the chemical of interest. Schematically, this bilevel optimization problem is illustrated in FIG. 2. Mathematically, this bilevel optimization problem is expressed as the following bilevel mixed-integer optimization problem:

$\begin{matrix} {{\begin{matrix} \underset{y_{j}}{maximize} & v_{chemical} \end{matrix}\mspace{416mu}({OptKnock})}\begin{pmatrix} {\underset{v_{j}}{{subject}\mspace{14mu}}{to}} & {maximize} & v_{biomass} & \; \\ \; & {{subject}\mspace{14mu}{to}} & {{{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{M}{S_{ij}v_{j}}} = 0},} & {\forall{i \in N}} \\ \; & \; & {v_{substrate} = v_{{substrate}\_{uptake}}} & {\forall{i \in \begin{Bmatrix} {limiting} \\ {{substrate}(s)} \end{Bmatrix}}} \\ \; & \; & {v_{atp} \geq v_{{atp}\_{main}}} & \; \\ {v_{biomass} \geq v_{biomass}^{target}} & \; & \; & \; \end{pmatrix}{{{v_{j}^{\min} \cdot y_{j}} \leq v_{j} \leq {v_{j}^{\max} \cdot y_{j}}},{\forall{j \in M}}}{{\sum\limits_{j \in M^{forward}}\left( {1 - y_{j}} \right)} = K}{{y_{j} \in \left\{ {0,1} \right\}},{\forall{j \in M}}}} & \; \end{matrix}$ where v_(chemical) is the production of the desired target product, for example LCA or other biochemical product, and K is the number of allowable knockouts. Note that setting K equal to zero returns the maximum biomass solution of the complete network, while setting K equal to one identifies the single gene/reaction knockout (y_(j)=0) such that the resulting network involves the maximum overproduction given its maximum biomass yield. The final constraint ensures that the resulting network meets a minimum biomass yield. Burgard et al., Biotechnol Bioeng, 84: 647-57 (2003), provide a more detailed description of the model formulation and solution procedure. Problems containing hundreds of binary variables can be solved in the order of minutes to hours using CPLEX 8.0, GAMS: The Solver Manuals. 2003: GAMS Development Corporation, accessed via the GAMS, Brooke et al., GAMS Development Corporation (1998), modeling environment on an IBM RS6000-270 workstation. The OptKnock framework has already been able to identify promising gene disruption strategies for biochemical overproduction, Burgard et al., Biotechnol Bioeng, 84: 647-57 (2003), Pharkya et al., Biotechnol Bioeng, 84: 887-899 (2003), and establishes a systematic framework that will naturally encompass future improvements in metabolic and regulatory modeling frameworks.

Any solution of the above described bilevel OptKnock problem will provide one set of metabolic reactions to disrupt. Elimination of each reaction within the set or metabolic modification can result in LCA as a product during the growth phase of the organism. Because the reactions are known, a solution to the bilevel OptKnock problem also will provide the associated gene or genes encoding one or more enzymes that catalyze each reaction within the set of reactions. Identification of a set of reactions and their corresponding genes encoding the enzymes participating in each reaction is generally an automated process, accomplished through correlation of the reactions with a reaction database having a relationship between enzymes and encoding genes.

Once identified, the set of reactions that are to be disrupted in order to achieve growth-coupled LCA production are implemented in the target cell or organism by functional disruption of at least one gene encoding each metabolic reaction within the set. As described previously, one particularly useful means to achieve functional disruption of the reaction set is by deletion of each encoding gene. However, in some instances, it can be beneficial to disrupt the reaction by other genetic aberrations including, for example, mutation, deletion of regulatory regions such as promoters or cis binding sites for regulatory factors, or by truncation of the coding sequence at any of a number of locations. These latter aberrations, resulting in less than total deletion of the gene set can be useful, for example, when rapid assessments of the product coupling are desired or when genetic reversion is less likely to occur.

To identify additional productive solutions to the above described bilevel OptKnock problem which lead to further sets of reactions to disrupt or metabolic modifications that can result in the growth-coupled production of LCA, or other biochemical products, an optimization method, termed integer cuts, can be implemented. This method proceeds by iteratively solving the OptKnock problem exemplified above with the incorporation of an additional constraint referred to as an integer cut at each iteration. Integer cut constraints effectively prevent the solution procedure from choosing the exact same set of reactions identified in any previous iteration that couples product biosynthesis to growth. For example, if a previously identified growth-coupled metabolic modification specifies reactions 1, 2, and 3 for disruption, then the following constraint prevents the same reactions from being simultaneously considered in subsequent solutions: y₁+y₂+y₃≧1. The integer cut method is well known in the art and can be found described in, for example, reference, Burgard et al., Biotechnol Prog, 17: 791-797 (2001). As with all methods described herein with reference to their use in combination with the OptKnock computational framework for metabolic modeling and simulation, the integer cut method of reducing redundancy in iterative computational analysis also can be applied with other computational frameworks well known in the art including, for example, SimPheny.

Constraints of the above form preclude identification of larger reaction sets that include previously identified sets. For example, employing the integer cut optimization method above in a further iteration would preclude identifying a quadruple reaction set that specified reactions 1, 2, and 3 for disruption since these reactions had been previously identified. To ensure identification of all possible reaction sets leading to growth-coupled production of a product, a modification of the integer cut method was employed.

Briefly, the modified integer cut procedure begins with iteration ‘zero’ which calculates the maximum production of the desired biochemical at optimal growth for a wild-type network. This calculation corresponds to an OptKnock solution with K equaling 0. Next, single disruptions are considered and the two parameter sets, objstore_(iter) and ystore_(iter,j), are introduced to store the objective function (v_(chemical)) and reaction on-off information (y_(j)), respectively, at each iteration, iter. The following constraints are then successively added to the OptKnock formulation at each iteration. v _(chemical)≧objstore_(iter) +ε−M·Σ _(j εystore) _(iter,j) ₌₀ y _(j)

In the above equation, ε and M are a small and a large numbers, respectively. In general, ε can be set at about 0.01 and M can be set at about 1000. However, numbers smaller and/or larger then these numbers also can be used. M ensures that the constraint can be binding only for previously identified disruption strategies, while ε ensures that adding disruptions to a previously identified strategy must lead to an increase of at least ε in biochemical production at optimal growth. The approach moves onto double disruptions whenever a single disruption strategy fails to improve upon the wild-type strain. Triple disruptions are then considered when no double disruption strategy improves upon the wild-type strain, and so on. The end result is a ranked list, represented as desired biochemical production at optimal growth, of distinct disruption strategies that differ from each other by at least one disruption. This optimization procedure as well as the identification of a wide variety of reaction sets that, when disrupted, lead to the growth-coupled production of a biochemical product are exemplified in detail further below. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that the methods and metabolic engineering designs exemplified herein are applicable to the coupling of cell or microorganism growth to any biochemical product.

Employing the methods exemplified above, the methods of the invention enable the construction of cells and organisms that couple the production of a target biochemical product to growth of the cell or organism engineered to harbor the identified genetic alterations. In this regard, metabolic alterations have been identified that obligatorily couple the production of LCA to organism growth. Microbial organism strains constructed with the identified metabolic alterations produce elevated levels of LCA during the exponential growth phase. These strains can be beneficially used for the commercial production of LCA in continuous fermentation process without being subjected to the negative selective pressures described previously.

Therefore, the methods of the invention provide a set of metabolic modifications that are identified by an in silico method selected from OptKnock. The set of metabolic modifications can include functional disruption of one or more metabolic reactions including, for example, disruption by gene deletion. For LCA production metabolic modifications can be selected from the set of metabolic modifications listed in Table 1.

Also provided is a method of producing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having stable growth-coupled production of LCA. The method includes: (a) identifying in silico a set of metabolic modifications requiring LCA production during exponential growth; (b) genetically modifying an organism to contain the set of metabolic modifications requiring product production, and culturing the genetically modified organism. Culturing can include adaptively evolving the genetically modified organism under conditions requiring product production. The methods of the invention are applicable to bacterium, yeast and fungus as well as a variety of other cells and microorganism. Exemplary bacteria include species selected from E. coli, Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens, Actinobacillus succinogenes, Mannheimia succiniciproducens, Rhizobium etli, Bacillus subtilis, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Gluconobacter oxydans, Zymomonas mobilis, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Streptomyces coelicolor, Clostridium acetobutylicum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Pseudomonas putida. Exemplary eukaryotic organisms include species selected from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Kluyveromyces lactis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus arrhizus, Rhizopus oryzae, and Pichia pastoris.

A microbial organism produced by the methods of the invention is further provided. Additionally, the invention provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism comprising one or more gene disruptions encoding an enzyme associated with growth-coupled production of LCA and exhibiting stable growth-coupled production of these products. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention includes one or more gene disruptions occurring in genes encoding an enzyme obligatorily coupling LCA production to growth of the microbial organism when the gene disruption reduces an activity of the enzyme, whereby the one or more gene disruptions confers stable growth-coupled production of LCA onto the non-naturally occurring microbial organism.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organism can have one or more gene disruptions included in a metabolic modification listed in Table 1. The one or more gene disruptions can be a deletion. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention can be selected from a group of microbial organism having a metabolic modification listed in Tables 1. Non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention include bacteria, yeast, fungus, or any of a variety of other microorganisms applicable to fermentation processes. Exemplary bacteria include species selected from E. coli, A. succiniciproducens, A. succinogenes, M succiniciproducens, R. etli, Bacillus subtilis, C. glutamicum, G. oxydans, Z. mobilis, L. lactis, L. plantarum, S. coelicolor, C. acetobutylicum, P. fluorescens, and P. putida. Exemplary eukaryotic organisms include species selected from S. cerevisiae, S. pombe, K. lactis, K. marxianus, A. terreus, A. niger, R. arrhizus, R. oryzae, and P. pastoris.

The microbial organisms having growth-coupled LCA production are exemplified herein with reference to an Escherichia coli genetic background. However, with the complete genome sequence available for now more than 550 species (with more than half of these available on public databases such as the NCBI), including 395 microorganism genomes and a variety of yeast, fungi, plant, and mammalian genomes, the identification of an alternate species homolog for one or more genes, including for example, orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements, and the interchange of genetic alterations between organisms is routine and well known in the art. Accordingly, the metabolic alterations enabling growth-coupled production of LCA described herein with reference to a particular organism such as Escherichia coli can be readily applied to other microorganisms. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will know that a metabolic alteration exemplified in one organism can be applied equally to other organisms.

As described previously, homologues can include othologs and/or nonorthologous gene displacements. In some instances, such as when a substitute metabolic pathway exists in the species of interest, functional disruption can be accomplished by, for example, deletion of a paralog that catalyzes a similar, yet non-identical metabolic reaction which replaces the referenced reaction. Because certain differences among metabolic networks between different organisms, those skilled in the art will understand that the actual genes disrupted between different organisms may differ. However, the given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art also will understand that the methods of the invention can be applied to all microorganisms to identify the cognate metabolic alterations between organisms and to construct an organism in a species of interest that will enhance the coupling of LCA biosynthesis to growth.

The invention will be described herein with general reference to the metabolic reaction, reactant or product thereof, or with specific reference to one or more genes associated with the referenced metabolic reaction, reactant or product. Unless otherwise expressly stated herein, those skilled in the art will understand that reference to a reaction also constitutes reference to the reactants and products of the reaction. Similarly, unless otherwise expressly stated herein, reference to a reactant or product also references the reaction and that reference to any of these metabolic constitutes also references the gene or genes encoding the enzymes that catalyze the referenced reaction, reactant or product. Likewise, given the well known fields of metabolic biochemistry, enzymology and genomics, reference herein to a gene also constitutes a reference to the corresponding encoded enzyme and the reaction it catalyzes as well as the reactants and products of the reaction. As described previously and further below, exemplary reactions, reaction nomenclature, reactants, products, cofactors and genes encoding enzymes catalyzing a reaction involved in the growth-coupled production of LCA are set forth in Tables 2 and 3.

The invention provides non naturally occurring microbial organisms having growth-coupled production of LCA. Product production is obligatorily linked to the exponential growth phase of the microorganism by genetically altering the metabolic pathways of the cell. The genetic alterations make the desired product a product during the growth phase. Sets of metabolic alterations or transformations that result in elevated levels of LCA biosynthesis are exemplified in Table 1, respectively. Each alteration within a set corresponds to the requisite metabolic reaction that should be functionally disrupted. Functional disruption of all reactions within each set results in the production of LCA by the engineered strain during the growth phase. The corresponding reactions to the referenced alterations and the gene or genes that potentially encode them in Escherichia coli, are set forth in Table 2. The various metabolites, their abbreviations and location are set forth in Table 3.

For example, for each strain exemplified in Table 1, the metabolic alterations that can be generated for growth coupled LCA production are shown in each row. These alterations include the functional disruption of from one to six or more reactions. In particular, 995 strains are exemplified in Table 1 that have non-naturally occurring metabolic genotypes. Each of these non-naturally occurring alterations result in an enhanced level of LCA production during the exponential growth phase of the microbial organism compared to a wild-type strain, under appropriate culture conditions. Appropriate conditions include, for example, those exemplified further below in the Example I such as particular carbon sources or reactant availabilities and/or adaptive evolution.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will understand that to disrupt an enzymatic reaction it is necessary to disrupt the catalytic activity of the one or more enzymes involved in the reaction. Disruption can occur by a variety of means including, for example, deletion of an encoding gene or incorporation of a genetic alteration in one or more of the encoding gene sequences. The encoding genes targeted for disruption can be one, some, or all of the genes encoding enzymes involved in the catalytic activity. For example, where a single enzyme is involved in a targeted catalytic activity disruption can occur by a genetic alteration that reduces or destroys the catalytic activity of the encoded gene product. Similarly, where the single enzyme is multimeric, including heteromeric, disruption can occur by a genetic alteration that reduces or destroys the function of one or all subunits of the encoded gene products. Destruction of activity can be accomplished by loss of the binding activity of one or more subunits in order to form an active complex, by destruction of the catalytic subunit of the multimeric complex or by both. Other functions of multimeric protein association and activity also can be targeted in order to disrupt a metabolic reaction of the invention. Such other functions are well known to those skilled in the art. Further, some or all of the functions of a single polypeptide or multimeric complex can be disrupted according to the invention in order to reduce or abolish the catalytic activity of one or more enzymes involved in a reaction or metabolic modification of the invention. Similarly, some or all of enzymes involved in a reaction or metabolic modification of the invention can be disrupted so long as the targeted reaction is reduced or destroyed.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art also will understand that an enzymatic reaction can be disrupted by reducing or eliminating reactions encoded by a common gene and/or by one or more orthologs of that gene exhibiting similar or substantially the same activity. Reduction of both the common gene and all orthologs can lead to complete abolishment of any catalytic activity of a targeted reaction. However, disruption of either the common gene or one or more orthologs can lead to a reduction in the catalytic activity of the targeted reaction sufficient to promote coupling of growth to product biosynthesis. Exemplified herein are both the common genes encoding catalytic activities for a variety of metabolic modifications as well as their orthologs. Those skilled in the art will understand that disruption of some or all of the genes encoding a enzyme of a targeted metabolic reaction can be practiced in the methods of the invention and incorporated into the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention in order to achieve the growth-coupled product production.

Herein below are described the designs identified for increasing LCA production in Escherichia coli. The OptKnock algorithm identified designs based on a stoichiometric model of Escherichia coli metabolism. Assumptions include (i) a glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gdw/hr; (ii) anaerobic or microaerobic conditions; and (iii) a minimum non-growth associated maintenance requirement of 3 mmol/gdw/hr. Dodecanol, a C₁₂ molecule, was chosen as an exemplary long chain alcohol whose production can be coupled to growth following the teachings of this invention. Although glucose was assumed to be the growth substrate, it is understood that the strategies are applicable to any substrate including glucose, sucrose, xylose, arabinose, or glycerol. The complete set of growth-coupled LCA productions designs are listed in Table 1. The enzyme names, their abbreviations, and the corresponding reaction stoichiometries are listed in Table 2. Finally, metabolites names corresponding to the abbreviations in the reaction equations are listed in Table 3. Although the designs were identified using a metabolic model of E. coli metabolism, and the gene names listed in Table 2 are specific to E. coli, the method of choosing the metabolic engineering strategies and also the designs themselves are applicable to any LCA-producing organism. Thus the designs are essentially lists of enzymatic transformations whose activity must be either eliminated, attenuated, or initially absent from a microorganism to enable the growth coupled production of long chain alcohols.

One criterion for prioritizing the final selection of designs was the growth-coupled yield of dodecanol. To examine this, production cones were constructed for each strategy by first maximizing and, subsequently minimizing the dodecanol yields at different rates of biomass formation (as described in the previous section). If the rightmost boundary of all possible phenotypes of the mutant network is a single point, it implies that there is a unique optimum yield of the product at the maximum biomass formation rate possible in the network. In other cases, the rightmost boundary of the feasible phenotypes is a vertical line, indicating that at the point of maximum biomass the network can make any amount of the dodecanol in the calculated range, including the lowest amount at the bottommost point of the vertical line. Such designs were given a lower priority. A short list of the highest priority OptKnock designs is provided here in Table I which represents a subset of the designs of Table 1.

TABLE I Design Enzyme activity Abbreviation Other notes I Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D II Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design I + PFL D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi III Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design II + FRD2 D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarate reductase FRD2 IV Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design II + FUM D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarase FUM V Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design II + MDH D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Malate dehydrogenase MDH VI Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design III + GLUDy D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarate reductase FRD2 Glutamate dehydrogenase GLUDy VII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design IV + GLUDy D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarase FUM Glutamate dehydrogenase GLUDy VIII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design V + GLUDy D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Malate dehydrogenase MDH Glutamate dehydrogenase GLUDy IX Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design III + THD2 D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarate reductase FRD2 NAD(P) transhydrogenase THD2 X Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design IV + THD2 D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Fumarase FUM NAD(P) transhydrogenase THD2 XI Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design V + THD2 D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Pyruvate formate lyase PFLi Malate dehydrogenase MDH NAD(P) transhydrogenase THD2 XII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design I + PTAr and/or ACKr D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Phosphotransacetylase and/or Acetate kinase PTAr and/or ACKr XIII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XII + FRD2 D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Phosphotransacetylase and/or Acetate kinase PTAr and/or ACKr Fumarate reductase FRD2 XIV Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XII + FUM D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Phosphotransacetylase and/or Acetate kinase PTAr and/or ACKr Fumarase FUM XV Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XII + MDH D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Phosphotransacetylase and/or Acetate kinase PTAr and/or ACKr Malate dehydrogenase MDH XVI Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design I + FRD D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Fumarate reductase FRD2 XVII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design I + FUM D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Fumarase FUM XVIII Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design I + MDH D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Malate dehydrogenase MDH XIX Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XVI + ATPS4r D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Fumarate reductase FRD2 ATP synthase ATPS4r XX Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XVII + ATPS4r D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Fumarase FUM ATP synthase ATPS4r XXI Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase ADHEr Design XVIII + ATPS4r D-lactate dehydrogenase LDH_D Fumarate reductase MDH ATP synthase ATPS4r

All growth coupled designs in this document build upon Design I which calls for the joint disruption of acetylaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase (ADHEr) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH_D) activities to reduce the formation of ethanol and lactate, respectively. A dodecanol yield of 0.14 mol/mol glucose is predicted to be attained upon achieving a maximum growth rate of 0.20 l/hr (Design I, FIG. 3). Design II specifies the removal, attenuation, or absence of ADHEr, LDH_D, and pyruvate formate lyase (PFLi) and is predicted to result in a dodecanol yield of 0.28 mol/mol glucose at maximum growth as shown in FIG. 4. A tighter coupling of LCA production to growth is attained by the further disruption of fumarate reductase (FRD2), fumarase (FUM), or malate dehydrogenase (MDH) activity as indicated by the solution boundary of Designs III-V in FIG. 4. An even tighter coupling of production to growth is attained by the further disruption of glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUDy) or NADP transhydrogenase (THD2) activity as shown in solution boundary of Designs VI-XI in FIG. 4. Designs VI-XI actually require a non-insignificant yield of LCA, specifically, 0.05 mol dodecanol/mol glucose, to enable a minimal amount of cell growth.

Design XII calls for the disruption of phosphotransacetylase (PTAr) and/or acetate kinase (ACKr) activity in addition to ADHEr and LDH_D to prevent or lessen the production of acetate, ethanol, and lactate, respectively. A dodecanol yield of 0.28 mol/mol is required to attain a maximum growth rate of 0.16 l/hr assuming a glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gDW/hr as shown in FIG. 5. A tighter coupling of LCA production to growth is attained by the further disruption of FRD2, FUM, or MDH as indicated by the solution boundary of Designs XIII-XV. Designs XVI-XVIII specify that the disruption of FRD2, FUM, or MDH activity in addition to ADHEr and LDH_D results in a tighter coupling of dodecanol production to cell growth as compared to Design I as shown in FIG. 6. Further disrupting ATP synthase activity in designs XIX-XXI is predicted to result in a dodecanol yield of 0.30 mol/mol at a maximum growth rate of 0.13 l/hr as shown in FIG. 6. The disruption of this activity forces the organism to rely on the MI-LCA pathway for energy generation. Accordingly, a minimum dodecanol yield of 0.05 mol/mol is required for any growth to be attained assuming that the organism lacks the activities listed in Designs XIX-XXI.

It is understood that the disruption of certain activities in addition to those listed by Designs I-XXI can lead to even higher production yields as illustrated in the following examples. Design V_A involves disruption of Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase (ADHEr), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH_D), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), pyruvate formate lyase (PFLi), L-aspartase (ASPT), pyruvate kinase (PYK), glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDHy), and dihydroxyacetone phosphotransferase (DHAPT). Upon addition of the MI-LCA pathway, an engineered strain containing disruptions in these activities is predicted to have a growth-coupled dodecanol yield of 0.327 mol/mol glucose at the maximum growth rate of 0.02 l/hr (FIG. 7, point A). This corresponds to 98% of the maximum theoretical yield of 0.333 mol dodecanol/mol glucose. The maximum growth rate of such a strain is predicted to be approximately 10% of the wide type strain while a minimum dodecanol yield of 0.09 mol/mol is required for growth (FIG. 7, point B). A recombinant strain containing reduced activity ofthese functionalities can be constructed in a single step or in subsequent steps by, for example, disrupting 2-3 activities each step. For example, one can engineer E. coli for growth coupled LCA production by first removing genes encoding ADHEr and LDH_D activities resulting in Design I. Design V is then constructed by further deleting genes responsible for MDH and PFLi activities. Design V_A is then constructed by deleting genes encoding ASPT, PYK, G6PDHy, and DHAPT activities. Finally, note that several activities (i.e., 6-phosphogluconolactonase (PGL), phosphogluconate dehydratase (PGDHY), or 2-dehydro-3-deoxy-phosphogluconate aldolase (EDA)) can replace G6PDHy for disruption and yield the same characteristics as Design V_A.

Design XII_A involves disruption of Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase (ADHEr), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH_D), acetate kinase (ACKr) and/or phosphotransacetylase (PTAr), glutamate dehydrogenase (NADP) (GLUDy), phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGDH), and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (PGI). Design XII_B involves disruption of Acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase (ADHEr), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH_D), acetate kinase (ACKr) and/or phosphotransacetylase (PTAr), glutamate dehydrogenase (NADP) (GLUDy), phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGDH), glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (PGI), and D-glucose transport via PEP:Pyr PTS (GLCpts). Upon addition of the MI-LCA pathway, an engineered strain lacking the activities specified by Design XII_B is predicted to have a growth-coupled dodecanol yield of 0.322 mol/mol glucose at the maximum growth rate of 0.04 l/hr (FIG. 8, point A). This corresponds to 97% of the maximum theoretical yield of 0.333 mol dodecanol/mol glucose. The maximum growth rate of such a strain is predicted to be approximately 20% of the wild type strain while a minimum dodecanol yield of 0.05 mol/mol is required for growth (FIG. 8, point B). A recombinant strain containing reduced activity of these functionalities can be constructed in a single step or in subsequent steps by, for example, removing additional activities each step. For example, one can engineer E. coli for growth coupled LCA production by first removing genes encoding ADHEr and LDH_D activities resulting in Design I. Design XII is then constructed by further deleting genes encoding PTAr and/or ACKr activities. Design XII_A is then constructed by deleting the genes responsible for GLUDy, PGDH, and PGI activities. Finally, Design XII_B is constructed by further deleting a gene essential for GLCpts activity.

Accordingly, the invention also provides a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a set of metabolic modifications coupling LCA production to growth of the organism, the set of metabolic modifications includes disruption of one or more genes selected from the set of genes encoding proteins that include an acetylaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase and a lactate dehydrogenase.

The present invention also provides a strain lacking the activities listed for Design I above that further lack at least one of the following activities: pyruvate formate lyase (PFLi), phosphotransacetylase (PTAr), acetate kinase (ACKr), fumarate reductase (FRD2), fumarase (FUM), or malate dehydrogenase (MDH) as exemplified by Designs II, XII, XVI, XVII, and XVIII.

In further embodiments, the invention provides a strain lacking the activities listed for Design II above and further lacks at least one of the following activities: fumarate reductase (FRD2), fumarase (FUM), or malate dehydrogenase (MDH) as exemplified by Designs III, IV, and V.

In still further embodiments, the invention provides strains lacking the activities listed for Designs III, IV, or V, above and further lack glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUDy) activity as exemplified by Designs VI, VII, and VIII.

The invention also provides strains lacking the activities listed for designs III, IV, or V, above and further lack NAD(P) transhydrogenase (THD2) activity as exemplified by Designs IX, X, and XI.

In yet further embodiments, the invention provides a strain lacking the activities listed for Design XII above and further lack at least one of the following activities: fumarate reductase (FRD2), fumarase (FUM), or malate dehydrogenase (MDH) as exemplified by Designs XIII, XIV, and XV.

Finally, the invention provides strains lacking the activities listed for designs XVI, XVII, and XVIII, above and further lack ATP synthase (ATPS4r) activity as exemplified by Designs XIX, XX, and XXI.

Herein below are described the pathways identified for increasing LCA production in S. cerevisiae. The OptKnock algorithm, described herein further below, identified designs based on a stoichiometric model of Saccharomyces cerevisaiemetabolism. Assumptions include (i) a glucose uptake rate of 10 mmol/gdw/hr; (ii) anaerobic or microaerobic conditions; and (iii) a minimum non-growth associated maintenance requirement of 3 mmol/gdw/hr. Dodecanol, a C₁₂ molecule, was chosen as an exemplary long chain alcohol whose production can be coupled to growth following the teachings of this invention. Although glucose was assumed to be the growth substrate, it is understood that the methods are applicable to any substrate including glucose, sucrose, xylose, arabinose, or glycerol. Although the designs were identified using a metabolic model of S. cerevisiae metabolism the method of choosing the metabolic engineering pathways and also the designs themselves are applicable to any LCA-producing eukaryotic organism. Thus, the designs are essentially lists of enzymatic transformations whose activity must be either eliminated, attenuated, or initially absent from a microorganism to enable the production of long chain alcohols.

One criterion for prioritizing the final selection of pathways was the yield of dodecanol. To examine this, production cones were constructed for each set of pathways by first maximizing and, subsequently minimizing the dodecanol yields at different rates of biomass formation. If the rightmost boundary of all possible phenotypes of the mutant network is a single point, it implies that there is a unique optimum yield of the product at the maximum biomass formation rate possible in the network. In other cases, the rightmost boundary of the feasible phenotypes is a vertical line, indicating that at the point of maximum biomass the network can make any amount of the dodecanol in the calculated range, including the lowest amount at the bottommost point of the vertical line. Such designs were given a lower priority.

The organisms of the present invention can be cultured in a substantially anaerobic culture medium or a microaerobic culture medium as detailed herein below further. Such organisms have one or more gene disruptions which may include complete deletion in some embodiments, or disruption by removal or changes in functional portions encoded by fragments of the entire gene.

In some embodiments, the present invention provides non-naturally occurring eukaryotic microbial organisms that produce LCAs in the cytosol. Note that cytosol herein refers to any compartment outside the mitochondrion. In such embodiments, one or more gene disruptions in the eukaryotic organism encoding an enzyme include, for example, a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase and a mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase. Exemplary genes endocing these enzymes include, for example, YLR044C, YLR134W, YGR087C, PDC3, YNL071W, YER178W, YBR221C, YGR193C, YFLO18C, YBR145W, YGL256W, YOL086C, YMR303, YMR083W, YPL088W, YAL061W, YMR318C, YCR105W, and YDL168W.

Other gene disruptions encoding an enzyme include, for example, a cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, a glycerol-3-phospate dehydrogenase shuttle, an external NADH dehydrogenase, and an internal mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase can also be effected. Exemplary genes of the later include, for example, YOL126C, YDL022W, YOL059W, YIL155C, YMR145C, YDL085W, and YML120C.

These organisms can also include an exogenous nucleic acid encoding an enzyme in the cytosol including, for example, an acetyl-CoA synthetase (AMP-forming), an ADP-dependent acetate-CoA ligase, an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, a pyruvate dehydrogenase, a pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase, and a pyruvate formate lyase, or their corresponding gene regulatory regions. An exogenous nucleic acid encoding a cytosolic transhydrogenase or its gene regulatory region can also be incorporated. In some embodiments these gene products may be natively expressed in the cytosol, while in other embodiments, they may be overexpressed by, for example, adding copies of the gene from the same source or from other organisms, or by introducing or changing gene regulatory regions. Such gene regulatory regions include, for example, alternate promoters, inducible promoters, variant promoters or enhancers to enhance gene expression. Functional disruption of negative regulatory elements such as repressors and/or silencers also can be employed to enhance gene expression. Similar modifications can be made to translation regulatory regions to enhance polypeptide synthesis and include, for example, substitution of a ribosome binding site with an optimal or consensus sequence and/or removing secondary structures.

These organisms maximize the availability of acetyl CoA, ATP and reducing equivalents (NADH) for dodecanol production. Acetyl CoA is the primary carbon precursor for the production of LCA via the proposed MI-LCA route. All the reactions enabling the formation of dodecanol via the malonyl-CoA independent pathway are operational in the cytosol. Specifically, ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase, and enoyl-CoA reductase function in the appropriate direction to form acyl CoA which is then reduced to fatty aldehyde and dodecanol via acyl CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase.

Introduction of the MI-LCA pathway in the cytosol prevented any flux through the native pyruvate dehydrogenase in silico. Under anaerobic conditions and in conditions where glucose concentrations are high in the medium, the capacity of this mitochondrial enzyme is very limited and there is no significant flux through it. However, in some embodiments, this enzyme can be deleted or attenuated to increase LCA production.

In one embodiment, LCA production in the cytosol uses the AMP-forming acetyl-CoA synthetase. Dodecanol production in the cytosol relies on the native cell machinery to provide the precursors needed in LCA production. A majority of the pyruvate flux generated by glycolysis is channeled into the formation of acetyl CoA via the pyruvate dehydrogenase bypass comprised of the pyruvate decarboxylase, the acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and the AMP-forming acetyl-CoA synthetase (FIG. 9 a). This bypass is reported to have significant flux through it even under aerobic conditions at high concentrations of glucose (Pronk et al., Yeast 12:1607-1633 (1996)).

The last step of the bypass that converts acetate into acetyl-CoA is catalyzed by acetyl-CoA synthetase, encoded by the ACS1 and ACS2 genes. Since ACS2 is constitutively expressed on glucose and is present in cytosol among other compartments, in some embodiments the non-naturally occurring eukarotyic organism is engineered to overexpress ACS2. In other embodiments the ACS2 gene is replaced with a mutant ACS from Salmonellas enterica (Genbank id NP_(—)807785.1) that is not subject to post-translational modification and has higher activity in S. cerevisiae as compared to ACS1 or ACS2 (Shiba et al., Metab Eng. 9:160-168 (2007)).

The AMP-generating acetyl CoA synthetase uses two ATP equivalents for the conversion of each molecule of acetate into acetyl CoA (CoA+acetate+ATP→acetyl-CoA+PPi+AMP). Under anaerobic conditions, when energy is available only through substrate-level phosphorylation, the production of dodecanol via the AMP-forming acetyl CoA synthetase is not energetically favorable. Therefore, a small amount of oxygen is made available to the cell to fulfill its energetic requirements, simultaneously increasing the conversion of acetate into acetyl CoA.

The production of dodecanol can be improved by disruption of ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenases to prevent acetyl-CoA and NADH from being used for ethanol production. Additionally, the production of LCA benefits from preventing NADH from being used in the respiratory electron-transport chain. Thus, disruptions in the internal mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase, the glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase shuttle (consisting of cytosolic NADH-linked glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and a membrane-bound glycerol-3-phosphate:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) (Bakker et al., FEMS Microbiol. Rev. 25:15-37 (2001)) and the external NADH dehydrogenase are introduced in some embodiments. Further, cytosolic malate dehydrogenase that can potentially draw NADH away from dodecanol production is also disrupted. A growth-coupled production envelope after imposing these disruptions is shown in dark gray in FIG. 9 b and compared with the dodecanol production characteristics under aerobic conditions.

In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism incorporates an exogenous gene encoding an ADP-forming acetate CoA ligase. In this embodiment, the AMP-forming acetyl CoA synthetase in the cytosol is replaced by the ADP-forming acetate CoA ligase (CoA+acetate+ATP→acetyl-CoA+Pi+ADP) (FIG. 10 a). Exogenous genes to introduce acetate CoA ligase include, for example, acdA and acdB from Pyrococcus furiosus (Glasemacher et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 244:561-567 (1997)) (Mai and Adams, J. Bacteriol. 178: 5897-5903 (1996)). The introduction of this enzyme that uses one equivalent of ATP for formation of each molecule of acetyl CoA (as opposed to 2 ATP equivalents) allows the production of dodecanol to be energetically neutral. In this embodiment, a small amount of oxygen or other electron acceptor respiration is used to generate energy to support growth. Such small amounts of oxygen are referred to as microaerobic conditions, as described further below. In some embodiments, the ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenases is disrupted to prevent ethanol formation. In embodiments incorporating CoA ligase, one or more of the following knockouts can be introduced for LCA production: cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, glycerol-3-phospate dehydrogenase shuttle, the external NADH dehydrogenase, and the internal mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase. The growth-coupled production after imposition of these disruptions is shown in FIG. 10 b in dark gray. The black curve shows the production envelope for the wild-type strain under aerobic conditions and the light gray curve shows the envelope when the network is augmented with acetate-CoA ligase. Note the increase in the maximum theoretical yield of dodecanol after introduction of this enzyme.

In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism incorporates an exogenous gene encoding an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase Improvement in the energetics of the dodecanol process can be accomplished by using the acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (acetaldehyde+CoA+NAD→acetyl-CoA+NADH) for the conversion of acetaldehyde into acetyl CoA (FIG. 11 a). The benefits of using this enzyme are that (i) no energy is expended for production of acetyl CoA, and (ii) one molecule of NADH is formed for every molecule of acetyl CoA formed. Thus, the reducing equivalents needed for the production of acetyl CoA can also be generated. The introduction of this enzyme allows production of LCA under anaerobic conditions.

Acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase has been reported in several bacteria, including Acetobacterium woodii (Mai and Adams, J. Bacteriol. 178:5897-5903 (1996)), Clostridium kluyveri (Seedorf et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A 105:2128-2133 (2008); Smith and Kaplan, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 203:663-675(1980)), Clostridium beijerinckii (Yan et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol 56:2591-2599 (1990)), and in species of Pseudomonas such as strain CF600 (Lei et al., Biochemistry 47:6870-6882 (2008); Manjasetty et al., Acta Crystallogr. D. Biol. Crystallogr. 57:582-585 (2001)). The Genbank ids of genes are shown in Table 5 below.

TABLE 5 Ald YP_001394464.1 Clostridium kluyveri dmpF CAA43226.1 Pseudomonas sp. CF600 bphG BAA03892.1 Pseudomonas sp mhpD NP_414884.1 Escherichia coli K12 MG1655

In some embodiments each of the strains above can be supplemented with additional disruptions. Alternatively, some other enzymes not known to possess significant activity under the growth conditions can become active due to adaptive evolution or random mutagenesis and can also be disrupted.

The anaerobic growth-coupled production of dodecanol (or any LCA) can be accomplished by disrupting ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase activity. The introduction of an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, with its favorable energetics, prevents or reduces carbon flux through the native acetaldehyde dehydrogenase and the acetyl-CoA synthetase. The production envelope is shown in FIG. 11 b. The wild-type S. cerevisiae (black) network can form only small amounts of dodecanol as an byproduct of growth under anaerobic conditions. When the network is augmented with acylating dehydrogenase, there is an increase in the theoretical maximum yield in the network, but no growth-coupling is observed (dotted light gray curve). However, disruption of ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase from the augmented network shows that dodecanol production is coupled to growth at the maximum feasible biomass in the network (dark gray curve).

In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a cytosolic pyruvate dehydrogenase for dodecanol production. Cytosolic pyruvate dehydrogenase for generating the precursors for the MI-LCA pathway are shown in FIG. 12. In such embodiments, (i) pyruvate is directly converted into acetyl CoA in the cytosol without the expenditure of energy, and (ii) more reducing equivalents are available to the cell.

In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism is engineered to retarget the native mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase to the cytosol. In other embodiments, a heterologous cytosolic enzyme is introduced into the organism. The retargeting of an enzyme to a different compartment can be accomplished by changing the targeting sequence of the protein (van Loon and Young, EMBO J. 5:161-165 (1986)). Disruption of the native pyruvate decarboxylase enables a majority of the carbon flux to be introduced into the cytosol for processing by cytosolic pyruvate dehydrogenase. This also allows the production of dodecanol under anaerobic conditions. The growth-coupled production envelope is similar to that depicted in FIG. 11 b. Note that pyruvate decarboxylase is disrupted instead of alcohol dehydrogenase to achieve growth-coupling in the network.

In some embodiments, the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a cytosolic pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase. Pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase allows for the production of acetyl CoA and reducing equivalents in the cytosol as shown in FIG. 13. The addition of this enzyme allows for the production of acetyl CoA without expending energy that would otherwise have been required by acetyl CoA synthetase. The enzyme has been purified from the mitochondrion of Euglena gracilis and is oxygen-sensitive (Inui et al., Journal of Biochemistry 96:931-934 (1984); Inui et al., Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 237:423-429 (1985); Inui et al., Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 274:434-442 (1989); Inui et al., Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 280:292-298 (1990)). It is used for generating acetyl CoA from pyruvate, simultaneously producing NADPH. The corresponding gene is pno and its Genbank id is: CAC37628.1. It can be targeted to the cytosol by removing the mitochondrial targeting sequence. In some embodiments, a transhydrogenase is also added. This enzyme can be introduced as an exogenous gene from an organism such as E. coli to convert the generated NADPH into NADH (Nissen et al., Yeast 18:19-32 (2001)).

With its low ATP requirements, the pathway is energetically favorable even under anaerobic conditions. To prevent or reduce the utilization of NADH and pyruvate for ethanol production, pyruvate decarboxylase activity can be disrupted. This leads to a growth-coupled production of dodecanol similar to that shown in FIG. 11 b.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a pyruvate formate lyase. In such embodiments, a heterologous cytosolic pyruvate formate lyase (pfl) is used to generate both acetyl CoA and NADH as shown in FIG. 14. This enzyme is active typically under anaerobic conditions in organisms such as E. coli. The lack of energy requirement for conversion of pyruvate into acetyl CoA makes the production of dodecanol feasible under anaerobic conditions.

The conversion of pyruvate into acetyl CoA is accompanied by the production of formate. This is metabolized by the native formate dehydrogenase, leading to additional generation of reducing equivalents in stoichiometric quantities. In some embodiments that use this strain design, one or more of the three pyruvate decarboxylases, PDC1, PDC5 and PDC6, can be disrupted. The Genbank ids of exemplary genes encoding pyruvate formate lyase are shown in Table 6 below.

TABLE 6 pflB NP_415423.1 Escherichia coli pfl YP_001588758. Lactococcus lactis pfl YP_001394497.1 Clostridium kluyveri

The disruption of pyruvate decarboxylase along with the introduction of a heterologous pyruvate formate lyase in the network leads to a growth-coupled production of dodecanol. The production curve is similar to what is shown in FIG. 11 b.

While the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organisms described above produce LCAs in the cytosol, it is also possible to produce LCAs in the mitochondrion. Exemplary designs for the distribution of the carbon flux towards dodecanol production are detailed herein below. Organisms that produce LCAs in the mitochondrion include one or more disruptions in genes that encode enzymes such as a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase, and amitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase. Exemplary genese encoding these enzymes include, for example, YLR044C, YLR134W, YGR087C, PDC3, YBR145W, YGL256W, YOL086C, YMR303, YMR083W, YPL088W, YAL061W, YMR318C, YCR105W, and YDL168W.

Other genes disruptions include those encoding an enzyme suchas a cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, glycerol-3-phospate dehydrogenase shuttle, catalyzed by, the external NADH dehydrogenase, and internal NADH dehydrogenase. Exemplary genes of the latter include, for example, YOL126C, YDL022W, YOL059W, YIL155C, YMR145C, YDL085W, and YML120C.

Organisms that produce LCAs in the mitochondrion can also include an exogenous nucleic acid encoding an enzyme such as a pyruvate dehydrogenase, a pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase, a pyruvate formate lyase, an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, an acetate CoA ligase, and an AMP-forming acetyl CoA synthetase or their corresponding gene regulatory regions as described above. Additionally, such organisms benefit from enhanced NADH transporting shuttle systems for transport of NADH from the cytosol into the mitochondrion. Other exogenous nucleic acids encoding an enzyme that can be inserted in such organisms include a transhydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase, a pyruvate decarboxylase, and a pyruvate oxidase, all in the mitochondrion, or their corresponding gene regulatory regions.

In one embodiment a mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase is used in the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism. This can be the native pyruvate dehydrogenase which produces both acetyl CoA and NADH as shown in FIG. 15 a. Since, there is no energy requirement for the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl CoA via this route; the production of dodecanol, for example, is energetically favorable even under anaerobic conditions.

The mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase is known to be active in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions in S. cerevisiae (Pronk et al., Yeast 12:1607-1633 (1996)). In some embodiments the enzyme is overexpressed in its native or a heterologous form. The native enzyme can be overexpressed by using a stronger promoter. Additionally, mutations can be introduced aimed at increasing its activity under anaerobic conditions (Kim et al., J. Bacteriol. 190:3851-3858 (2008)). Reducing equivalents generated in the cytosol are made available in the mitochondrion for dodecanol production by using the redox shuttles present in S. cerevisiae. Note that these shuttles transport NADH into the mitochondrion for energy generation under respiratory conditions (Overkamp et al., J. Bacteriol. 182:2823-2830 (2000)). For growth-coupled production, pyruvate decarboxylase activity is disrupted to allow for pyruvate flux to be directed towards pyruvate dehydrogenase and to inhibit ethanol formation. The production curve for the mutant network is shown in FIG. 15 b.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a heterologous pyruvate:NADP-oxidoreductase. The production of dodecanol in the mitochondrion can be achieved by introduction of the pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase in the mitochondrion as shown in FIG. 16. This enzyme is purified from E. gracilis. Since the enzyme is naturally present in mitochondrion and is active under anaerobic conditions, it is possible to get high activity of the enzyme under anaerobic conditions. The introduction of this enzyme provides the precursor acetyl CoA for dodecanol production and also reducing equivalents. The NADPH generated by the enzyme is converted into NADH by a transhydrogenase, which can be introduced into the mitochondrion. For additional reducing equivalents, the redox shuttles need to transport NADH from the cytosol to the mitochondrion. The growth-coupled production of LCA using this enzyme can be obtained by disruption of pyruvate decarboxylase. The production curve of the mutant strain is very similar to the one shown in FIG. 15 b.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a heterologous pyruvate formate lyase. The production of dodecanol using a pyruvate formate lyase in mitochondrion is shown in FIG. 17. These genes have been outlined herein above. In such embodiments, the native formate dehydrogenase is retargeted to the mitochondrion to allow for further metabolizing formate and generating more reducing equivalents. This strain can be adopted to carry sufficient flux to sustain high yield and productivity of LCA production in the mitochondrion in the absence of oxygen.

Anaerobic growth conditions are feasible for the production of dodecanol using this strain design. Redox shuttles can be overexpressed to transport NADH generated in the cytosol to the mitochondrion. Production in this scenario is possible by disrupting the cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase activity. The production characteristics of the mutant strain are similar to that shown in FIG. 15 b.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a heterologous acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (acylating). In such embodiments, an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase is introduced into the mitochondrion to provide both acetyl-CoA and NADH for LCA production as shown in FIG. 18. A pyruvate decarboxylase isozyme is retargeted to the mitochondrion to convert pyruvate into acetaldehyde in some embodiments. The expression of these two activities in the mitochondrion is equivalent to the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase. The growth-coupled production curve is the same as that shown in FIG. 15 b. The growth-coupled production strain has the native mitochondrial acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (Pronk et al., Yeast 12:1607-1633 (1996)) and the cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase disrupted in some embodiments. In other embodiments, the mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase is also disrupted to prevent the conversion of acetaldehyde into ethanol.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a mitochondrial acetyl CoA synthetase (AMP-forming) As discussed above, the expression of this enzyme requires oxygen for favorable energetics. ACS1, an isozyme of acetyl CoA synthetase is expressed in S. cerevisiae in the mitochondrion under aerobic conditions but is repressed by glucose. This enzyme can be mutated to eliminate the repression or a heterologous enzyme that is expressed under the conditions of interest can be introduced. Additionally, pyruvate decarboxylase also can be expressed in the mitochondrion to form acetate. S. cerevisiae, for example, already possesses a mitochondrial acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (Pronk et al., Yeast 12:1607-1633 (1996)). Alternatively, enzymes such as pyruvate oxidase can be heterologously expressed to convert pyruvate into acetate. One such enzyme candidate is pyruvate oxidase from E. coli (Genbank id: NP_(—)451392.1). This enzyme is naturally expressed in the presence of oxygen.

The production of LCA using this strain design benefits from one or more of the following disrupted enzymes:cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, the glycerol-3-phospate dehydrogenase shuttle, the external NADH dehydrogenase, and the internal mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase. The glycerol-3-phosphate shuttle is comprised of the cytosolic glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and the membrane-bound glycerol-3-phosphate:ubiquionone oxidoreductase, with the latter also functioning as the mitochondrial glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. In some embodiments, the mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase is also disrupted to prevent or reduce the conversion of acetaldehyde into ethanol. The production curve for the wild type strain with a mitochondrial pyruvate decarboxylase added to the network is shown in black in FIG. 19 b. This curve is shown for aerobic conditions. The production characteristics when the aforementioned disruptions are imposed on the network are shown in light gray. The downregulation of the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway, especially the committing step, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, further improves the LCA production characteristics of the network.

In some embodiments, a non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism uses a mitochondrial acetate CoA ligase (ADP-forming) Mitochondrial LCA production can also be accomplished using an acetate-CoA ligase to convert acetate into acetyl-CoA as shown in FIG. 20. As described above, the use of this enzyme is energetically favorable and LCA production is energetically neutral unless oxygen is supplied. The mitochondrial expression of pyruvate decarboxylase is used in such embodiments. LCA production is obtained by imposing disruptions in cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, the glycerol-3-phospate dehydrogenase shuttle, the external NADH dehydrogenase, and the internal NADH dehydrogenase. The down-regulation of the oxidative part of the pentose phosphate pathway further improves the growth-coupled production characteristics to yield a production curve similar to the one shown in FIG. 19 b. In some embodiments, the mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase is also disrupted to prevent or reduce the conversion of acetaldehyde into ethanol.

The design strategies described herein are useful not only for enhancing growth-coupled production, but they are also well-suited for enhancing non-growth coupled production because they link the production of long chain alcohols to energy generation and/or redox balance. Exemplary non-growth coupled production methods include implementing an aerobic growth phase followed by an anaerobic production phase. For example, Vemuri et al. J. Ind. Microbiol. Biotechnol. (6):325-332, (2002) describe a dual-phase process for the production of succinate in E. Coli. Okino et al. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. Sep. 6. (2008) [Currently available in online edition]. describe a similar non-growth couple production process in a strain of Corynebacterium glutamicum strain.

Another such method involves withholding an essential nutrient from a propogated cell culture, thereby limiting growth, but not precluding production as described in Durner et al. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. (8):3408-3414(2000). Yet another strategy aimed at decoupling growth from production involves replacing the growth substrate with another compound that is more slowly metabolizable as described in Altamirano et al. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 76:351-360 (2001). Growth decoupled-product formation can also be brought about by specific genetic modifications as described in Blombach et al. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 79:471-9 (2008).

Some microbial organisms capable of LCA production are exemplified herein with reference to an Saccharomyces cerevisaie genetic background. However, with the complete genome sequence available now for more than 550 species (with more than half of these available on public databases such as the NCBI), including 395 microorganism genomes and a variety of yeast, fungi, plant, and mammalian genomes, the identification of an alternate species homolog for one or more genes, including for example, orthologs, paralogs and nonorthologous gene displacements, and the interchange of genetic alterations between eukaryotic organisms is routine and well known in the art. Accordingly, the metabolic alterations enabling production of LCA described herein with reference to a particular organism such as Saccharomyces cerevisaie can be readily applied to other microorganisms. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will know that a metabolic alteration exemplified in one organism can be applied equally to other organisms.

The methods of the invention are applicable to various eukarotic organisms such as yeast and fungus. The yeast can include S. cerevisiae and Rhizopus arrhizus, for example. Exemplary eukaryotic species include those selected from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Kluyveromyces lactis, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus arrhizus, Rhizopus oryzae, Candida albicans, Candida boidinii and Pichia pastoris. Additionally, select cells from larger eukaryotic organisms are also applicable to methods of the present invention.

Genes can be inserted into S. cerevisiae, using several methods; some of these are plasmid-based whereas others allow for the incorporation of the gene in the chromosome. The latter approach employs an integrative promoter based expression vector, for example, the pGAPZ or the pGAPZα vector based on the GAP promoter. The expression vector constitutes the GAP promoter, the HIS4 wild-type allele for integration and the 3′ AOX transcription termination region of P. pastoris in addition to a KanMX cassette, flanked by loxP sites enabling removal and recycling of the resistance marker. The vectors are commercially available from Invitrogen. The details of which are elaborated in the Example below.

The engineered strains are characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. Cultures are grown overnight and used as inoculum for a fresh batch culture for which measurements are taken during exponential growth. The growth rate is determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (A600). Concentrations of glucose, alcohols, and other organic acid byproducts in the culture supernatant will be determined by analytical methods including HPLC using an HPX-87H column (BioRad), or GC-MS, and used to calculate uptake and secretion rates. All experiments are performed with triplicate cultures.

The invention also provides a method for producing long chain alcohols by culturing the non-naturally occurring eukaryotic organism described herein above. The one or more gene disruptions occur in genes encoding an enzyme to coupling long chain alcohol production to growth of the organism when the gene disruption reduces an activity of the enzyme. The one or more gene disruptions confers stable growth-coupled production of long chain alcohols onto the organism. In alternate embodiments the gene disruptions can enhance LCA production in a non-growth dependent manner.

Each of the strains presented herein may be supplemented with additional disruptions if it is determined that the predicted strain designs do not sufficiently couple the formation of LCAs with biomass formation. However, the list of gene disruption sets provided here serves as an excellent starting point for the construction of high-yielding growth-coupled LCA production strains.

Each of the proposed strains can be supplemented with additional disruptions if it is determined that the predicted strain designs do not sufficiently couple the formation of the product with biomass formation. Alternatively, some other enzymes not known to possess significant activity under the growth conditions can become active due to adaptive evolution or random mutagenesis and can also be disrupted. However, the list of gene disruption sets provided here serves as a starting point for construction of high-yielding growth-coupled LCA production strains.

The non-naturally occurring microbial organisms of the invention can be employed in the growth-coupled production of LCA. Essentially any quantity, including commercial quantities, can be synthesized using the growth-coupled LCA producers of the invention. Because the organisms of the invention obligatorily couple LCA to continuous growth or near-continuous growth processes are particularly useful for biosynthetic production of LCA. Such continuous and/or near continuous growth processes are described above and exemplified below in the Example I. Continuous and/or near-continuous microorganism growth processes also are well known in the art. Briefly, continuous and/or near-continuous growth processes involve maintaining the microorganism in an exponential growth or logarithmic phase. Procedures include using apparatuses such as the Evolugator™ evolution machine (Evolugate LLC, Gainesville, Fla.), fermentors and the like. Additionally, shake flask fermentation and grown under microaerobic conditions also can be employed. Given the teachings and guidance provided herein those skilled in the art will understand that the growth-coupled LCA producing microorganisms can be employed in a variety of different settings under a variety of different conditions using a variety of different processes and/or apparatuses well known in the art.

Generally, the continuous and/or near-continuous production of LCA will include culturing a non-naturally occurring growth-coupled LCA producing organism of the invention in sufficient nutrients and medium to sustain and/or nearly sustain growth in an exponential phase. Continuous culture under such conditions can be grown, for example, for a day, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 days or more. Additionally, continuous cultures can include time durations of 1 week, 2, 3, 4 or 5 or more weeks and up to several months. It is to be understood that the continuous and/or near-continuous culture conditions also can include all time intervals in between these exemplary periods. In particular embodiments, culturing is conducted in a substantially anaerobic culture medium.

LCA can be harvested or isolated at any time point during the continuous and/or near-continuous culture period exemplified above. As exemplified below, the longer the microorganisms are maintained in a continuous and/or near-continuous growth phase, the proportionally greater amount of LCA can be produced.

Therefore, the invention provides a method for producing LCA that includes culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism that includes one or more gene disruptions. The disruptions can occur in genes encoding an enzyme to coupling LCA production to growth of the microorganism when the gene disruption reduces an activity of the enzyme, such that the disruptions confer stable growth-coupled production of LCA onto the non-naturally microbial organism.

In some embodiments, the gene disruption can include a complete gene deletion. In some embodiments other means to disrupt a gene include, for example, frameshifting by omission or addition of oligonucleotides or by mutations that render the gene inoperable. One skilled in the art will recognize the advantages of gene deletions, however, because of the stability it may confer to the non-naturally occurring organism from reverting to its wild-type. In particular, the gene disruptions are selected from the gene set that includes genes detailed herein above.

The metabolic engineering strategies listed in this disclosure assume that the organism can produce long chain alcohols via the malonyl-CoA independent pathway. The construction of a recombinant host organism capable of producing long chain alcohols via the malonyl-CoA independent pathway involves engineering a non-naturally occurring microbial organism having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway having at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol. Such a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway includes a ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase. The acyl-reduction pathway includes an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase.

In order to validate the computational predictions presented herein, the strains must be constructed, evolved, and tested. Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 housing the MI-LCA pathway will serve as the strain into which the disruptions will be introduced. The disruptions will be constructed by incorporating in-frame deletions using homologous recombination via the λ Red recombinase system of Datsenko and Wanner (Datsenko, K. A. and B. L. Wanner, One-step inactivation of chromosomal genes in Escherichia coli K-12 using PCR products. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2000. 97(12): p. 6640-5.). The approach involves replacing a chromosomal sequence (i.e., the gene targeted for removal) with a selectable antibiotic resistance gene, which itself is later removed. Knockouts are integrated one by one into the recipient strain. No antibiotic resistance markers remain after each deletion allowing accumulation of multiple mutations in each target strain. The deletion technology completely removes the gene targeted for removal so as to substantially reduce the possibility of the constructed mutants reverting back to the wild-type.

As intermediate strains are being constructed, strain performance will be quantified by performing shake flask fermentations. Anaerobic conditions will be obtained by sealing the flasks with a rubber septum and then sparging the medium with nitrogen. For strains where growth is not observed under strict anaerobic conditions, microaerobic conditions can be applied by covering the flask with foil and poking a small hole for limited aeration. All experiments are performed using M9 minimal medium supplemented with glucose unless otherwise stated. Pre-cultures are grown overnight and used as inoculum for a fresh batch culture for which measurements are taken during exponential growth. The growth rate is determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (600 nm), and the glucose uptake rate by monitoring carbon source depletion over time. LCAs, ethanol, and organic acids are analyzed by GC-MS or HPLC using routine procedures. Triplicate cultures are grown for each strain.

The performance of select strains is tested in anaerobic, pH-controlled batch fermentations. This enables reliable quantification of the growth, glucose uptake, and formation rates of all products, as well as ensuring that the accumulation of acidic fermentation products will not limit cell growth. In addition, it allows accurate determination of LCA volumetric productivity and yield, two important parameters in benchmarking strain performance. Fermentations are carried out in 1-L bioreactors with 600 mL working volume, equipped with temperature and pH control. The reactor is continuously sparged with N₂ at approximately 0.5 L/min to ensure that DO levels remain below detection levels. The culture medium is the same as described above, except that the glucose concentration is increased in accordance with the higher cell density achievable in a fermentation vessel.

Chemostat experiments will be conducted to obtain a direct measure of how the switch in fermentation mode from batch to continuous affects LCA yield and volumetric productivity. The bioreactors described above using batch mode are operated in chemostat mode through continuous supply of medium and removal of spent culture. The inlet flow rate is set to maintain a constant dilution rate of 80% of the maximum growth rate observed for each strain in batch, and the outlet flow is controlled to maintain level. Glucose is the limiting nutrient in the medium, and set to achieve the desired optical density in the vessel.

The recombinant strains are initially expected to exhibit suboptimal growth rates until their metabolic networks have adjusted to their missing functionalities. To enable this adjustment, the strains are adaptively evolved. By subjecting the strains to adaptive evolution, cellular growth rate becomes the primary selection pressure and the mutant cells are compelled to reallocate their metabolic fluxes in order to enhance their rates of growth. This reprogramming of metabolism has been recently demonstrated for several E. coli mutants that had been adaptively evolved on various substrates to reach the growth rates predicted a priori by an in silico model (Fong, S. S. and B. O. Palsson, Metabolic gene-deletion strains of Escherichia coli evolve to computationally predicted growth phenotypes. Nat Genet, 2004. 36(10): p. 1056-8.). The OptKnock-generated strains are adaptively evolved in triplicate (running in parallel) due to differences in the evolutionary patterns witnessed previously in E. coli (Fong, S. S. and B. O. Palsson, Metabolic gene-deletion strains of Escherichia coli evolve to computationally predicted growth phenotypes. Nat Genet, 2004. 36(10): p. 1056-8; Fong, S. S., J. Y. Marciniak, and B. O. Palsson, Description and interpretation of adaptive evolution of Escherichia coli K-12 MG1655 by using a genome-scale in silico metabolic model. J Bacteriol, 2003. 185(21): p. 6400-8; Ibarra, R. U., J. S. Edwards, and B. O. Palsson, Escherichia coli K-12 undergoes adaptive evolution to achieve in silico predicted optimal growth. Nature, 2002. 420(6912): p. 186-189.) that could potentially result in one strain having superior production qualities over the others. Evolutions are run for a period of 2-6 weeks, depending upon the rate of growth improvement attained. In general, evolutions are stopped once a stable phenotype is obtained. The growth-coupled biochemical production concept behind the OptKnock approach results in the generation of genetically stable overproducers.

The engineered strains can be characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. Cultures are grown overnight and used as inoculum for a fresh batch culture for which measurements are taken during exponential growth. The growth rate can be determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (A600). Concentrations of glucose and other organic acid byproducts in the culture supernatant are determined by HPLC using an HPX-87H column (BioRad), and used to calculate uptake and secretion rates. All experiments are performed with triplicate cultures.

Following the adaptive evolution process, the new strains are characterized again by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. These results will be compared to the OptKnock predictions by plotting actual growth and production yields along side the production envelopes in the above figures. The most successful OptKnock design/evolution combinations are chosen to pursue further, and are characterized in lab-scale batch and continuous fermentations. The growth-coupled biochemical production concept behind the OptKnock approach should also result in the generation of genetically stable overproducers. Thus, the cultures are maintained in continuous mode for one month to evaluate long-term stability. Periodic samples are taken to ensure that yield and productivity are maintained throughout the experiment.

As previously mentioned, one computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring biosynthesis of a desired product is the OptKnock computational framework (Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng. 84:647-657 (2003)). The framework examines the complete metabolic and/or biochemical network of a microorganism in order to suggest genetic manipulations that force the desired biochemical to become a byproduct of cell growth. By coupling biochemical production with cell growth through strategically placed gene deletions or other functional gene disruption, the growth selection pressures imposed on the engineered strains after long periods of time in a bioreactor lead to improvements in performance as a result of the compulsory growth-coupled biochemical production. Lastly, when gene deletions are constructed there is a negligible possibility of the designed strains reverting to their wild-type states because the genes selected by OptKnock are to be completely removed from the genome. Therefore, this computational methodology can be used to either identify alternative pathways that lead to biosynthesis of a desired product or used in connection with the non-naturally occurring microbial organisms for further optimization of biosynthesis of a desired product.

Briefly, OptKnock is a term used herein to refer to a computational method and system for modeling cellular metabolism. The OptKnock program relates to a framework of models and methods that incorporate particular constraints into flux balance analysis (FBA) models. These constraints include, for example, qualitative kinetic information, qualitative regulatory information, and/or DNA microarray experimental data. OptKnock also computes solutions to various metabolic problems by, for example, tightening the flux boundaries derived through flux balance models and subsequently probing the performance limits of metabolic networks in the presence of gene additions or disruptions. OptKnock computational framework allows the construction of model formulations that enable an effective query of the performance limits of metabolic networks and provides methods for solving the resulting mixed-integer linear programming problems. The metabolic modeling and simulation methods referred to herein as OptKnock are described in, for example, U.S. publication 2002/0168654, filed Jan. 10, 2002, in International Patent No. PCT/US02/00660, filed Jan. 10, 2002, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/891,602, filed Aug. 10, 2007.

Another computational method for identifying and designing metabolic alterations favoring biosynthetic production of a product is a metabolic modeling and simulation system termed SimPheny®. This computational method and system is described in, for example, U.S. publication 2003/0233218, filed Jun. 14, 2002, and in International Patent Application No. PCT/US03/18838, filed Jun. 13, 2003. SimPheny® is a computational system that can be used to produce a network model in silico and to simulate the flux of mass, energy or charge through the chemical reactions of a biological system to define a solution space that contains any and all possible functionalities of the chemical reactions in the system, thereby determining a range of allowed activities for the biological system. This approach is referred to as constraints-based modeling because the solution space is defined by constraints such as the known stoichiometry of the included reactions as well as reaction thermodynamic and capacity constraints associated with maximum fluxes through reactions. The space defined by these constraints can be interrogated to determine the phenotypic capabilities and behavior of the biological system or of its biochemical components.

These computational approaches are consistent with biological realities because biological systems are flexible and can reach the same result in many different ways. Biological systems are designed through evolutionary mechanisms that have been restricted by fundamental constraints that all living systems must face. Therefore, constraints-based modeling strategy embraces these general realities. Further, the ability to continuously impose further restrictions on a network model via the tightening of constraints results in a reduction in the size of the solution space, thereby enhancing the precision with which physiological performance or phenotype can be predicted.

Given the teachings and guidance provided herein, those skilled in the art will be able to apply various computational frameworks for metabolic modeling and simulation to design and implement biosynthesis of a desired compound in host microbial organisms. Such metabolic modeling and simulation methods include, for example, the computational systems exemplified above as SimPheny® and OptKnock. For illustration of the invention, some methods are described herein with reference to the OptKnock computation framework for modeling and simulation. Those skilled in the art will know how to apply the identification, design and implementation of the metabolic alterations using OptKnock to any of such other metabolic modeling and simulation computational frameworks and methods well known in the art.

The methods described above will provide one set of metabolic reactions to disrupt. Elimination of each reaction within the set or metabolic modification can result in a desired product as a product during the growth phase of the organism. Because the reactions are known, a solution to the bilevel OptKnock problem also will provide the associated gene or genes encoding one or more enzymes that catalyze each reaction within the set of reactions. Identification of a set of reactions and their corresponding genes encoding the enzymes participating in each reaction is generally an automated process, accomplished through correlation of the reactions with a reaction database having a relationship between enzymes and encoding genes.

Once identified, the set of reactions that are to be disrupted in order to achieve production of a desired product are implemented in the target cell or organism by functional disruption of at least one gene encoding each metabolic reaction within the set. One particularly useful means to achieve functional disruption of the reaction set is by deletion of each encoding gene. However, in some instances, it can be beneficial to disrupt the reaction by other genetic aberrations including, for example, mutation, deletion of regulatory regions such as promoters or cis binding sites for regulatory factors, or by truncation of the coding sequence at any of a number of locations. These latter aberrations, resulting in less than total deletion of the gene set can be useful, for example, when rapid assessments of the coupling of a product are desired or when genetic reversion is less likely to occur.

To identify additional productive solutions to the above described bilevel OptKnock problem which lead to further sets of reactions to disrupt or metabolic modifications that can result in the biosynthesis, including growth-coupled biosynthesis of a desired product, an optimization method, termed integer cuts, can be implemented. This method proceeds by iteratively solving the OptKnock problem exemplified above with the incorporation of an additional constraint referred to as an integer cut at each iteration. Integer cut constraints effectively prevent the solution procedure from choosing the exact same set of reactions identified in any previous iteration that obligatorily couples product biosynthesis to growth. For example, if a previously identified growth-coupled metabolic modification specifies reactions 1, 2, and 3 for disruption, then the following constraint prevents the same reactions from being simultaneously considered in subsequent solutions. The integer cut method is well known in the art and can be found described in, for example, Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Prog. 17:791-797 (2001). As with all methods described herein with reference to their use in combination with the OptKnock computational framework for metabolic modeling and simulation, the integer cut method of reducing redundancy in iterative computational analysis also can be applied with other computational frameworks well known in the art including, for example, SimPheny®.

The methods exemplified herein allow the construction of cells and organisms that biosynthetically produce a desired product, including the coupling of production of a target biochemical product to growth of the cell or organism engineered to harbor the identified genetic alterations. Therefore, the computational methods described herein allow the identification and implementation of metabolic modifications that are identified by an in silico method selected from OptKnock or SimPheny®. The set of metabolic modifications can include, for example, addition of one or more biosynthetic pathway enzymes and/or functional disruption of one or more metabolic reactions including, for example, disruption by gene deletion.

As discussed above, the OptKnock methodology was developed on the premise that mutant microbial networks can be evolved towards their computationally predicted maximum-growth phenotypes when subjected to long periods of growth selection. In other words, the approach leverages an organism's ability to self-optimize under selective pressures. The OptKnock framework allows for the exhaustive enumeration of gene disruption combinations that force a coupling between biochemical production and cell growth based on network stoichiometry. The identification of optimal gene/reaction disruptions requires the solution of a bilevel optimization problem that chooses the set of active reactions such that an optimal growth solution for the resulting network overproduces the biochemical of interest (Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng. 84:647-657 (2003)).

An in silico stoichiometric model of Escherichia coli metabolism can be employed to identify essential genes for metabolic pathways as exemplified previously and described in, for example, U.S. patent publications US 2002/0012939, US 2003/0224363, US 2004/0029149, US 2004/0072723, US 2003/0059792, US 2002/0168654 and US 2004/0009466, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,379. As disclosed herein, the OptKnock mathematical framework can be applied to pinpoint gene disruptions leading to the growth-coupled production of a desired product. Further, the solution of the bilevel OptKnock problem provides only one set of disruptions. To enumerate all meaningful solutions, that is, all sets of disruptions leading to growth-coupled production formation, an optimization technique, termed integer cuts, can be implemented. This entails iteratively solving the OptKnock problem with the incorporation of an additional constraint referred to as an integer cut at each iteration, as discussed above.

Adaptive evolution is a powerful experimental technique that can be used to increase growth rates of mutant or engineered microbial strains, or of wild-type strains growing under unnatural environmental conditions. It is especially useful for strains designed via the OptKnock formalism, which results in growth-coupled product formation. Therefore, evolution toward optimal growing strains will indirectly optimize production as well. Unique strains of E. coli K-12 MG1655 were created through gene knockouts and adaptive evolution. (Fong, S. S. and B. O. Palsson, Nat. Genet. 36:1056-1058 (2004).) In this work, all adaptive evolutionary cultures were maintained in prolonged exponential growth by serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase was reached, thus rendering growth rate as the primary selection pressure. The genes that were selected for this knockout study were ackA, frdA, pckA, ppc, tpiA, and zwf. Knockout strains were constructed and evolved on minimal medium supplemented with different carbon substrates (four for each knockout strain). Evolution cultures were carried out in duplicate or triplicate, giving a total of 50 evolution knockout strains. The evolution cultures were maintained in exponential growth until a stable growth rate was reached. The computational predictions were accurate (i.e., within 10%) at predicting the post-evolution growth rate of the knockout strains in 38 out of the 50 cases examined. Furthermore, a combination of OptKnock design with adaptive evolution has led to improved lactic acid production strains. (Fong, S. S., A. P. Burgard, C. D. Herring, E. M. Knight, F. R. Blattner, C. D. Maranas, and B. O. Palsson, Biotechnol Bioeng 91:643-648 (2005).) The guidance of these teachings relevant to E. coli can be applied to other organisms.

There are a number of developed technologies for carrying out adaptive evolution. Exemplary methods are provided herein below. In some embodiments, optimization of a non-naturally occurring organism of the present invention includes subject the use of any of the these adaptive evolution techniques.

Serial culture involves repetitive transfer of a small volume of grown culture to a much larger vessel containing fresh growth medium. When the cultured organisms have grown to saturation in the new vessel, the process is repeated. This method has been used to achieve the longest demonstrations of sustained culture in the literature, (Lenski, R. E. and M. Travisano, Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 91:6808-6814 (1994).) in experiments which clearly demonstrated consistent improvement in reproductive rate over period of years. In the experiments performed in the Palsson lab described above, transfer is usually performed during exponential phase, so each day the transfer volume is precisely calculated to maintain exponential growth through the next 24 hour period. This process is usually done manually, with considerable labor investment, and is subject to contamination through exposure to the outside environment. Furthermore, since such small volumes are transferred each time, the evolution is inefficient and many beneficial mutations are lost. On the positive side, serial dilution is inexpensive and easy to parallelize.

In continuous culture the growth of cells in a chemostat represents an extreme case of dilution in which a very high fraction of the cell population remains. As a culture grows and becomes saturated, a small proportion of the grown culture is replaced with fresh media, allowing the culture to continually grow at close to its maximum population size. Chemostats have been used to demonstrate short periods of rapid improvement in reproductive rate. (Dykhuizen, D. E., Methods Enzymol. 613-631 (1993).) The potential power of these devices was recognized, but traditional chemostats were unable to sustain long periods of selection for increased reproduction rate, due to the unintended selection of dilution-resistant (static) variants. These variants are able to resist dilution by adhering to the surface of the chemostat, and by doing so, outcompete less sticky individuals including those that have higher reproductive rates, thus obviating the intended purpose of the device. (Chao, L. and G. Ramsdell J. Gen. Microbiol 20:132-138 (1985).) One possible way to overcome this drawback is the implementation of a device with two growth chambers, which periodically undergo transient phases of sterilization, as described in the patent by the Pasteur Institute (Marliere and Mutzel, U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,194, filed 1999).

Evolugator™ is a continuous culture device developed by Evolugate, LLC (Gainesville, Fla.) exhibits significant time and effort savings over traditional evolution techniques. (de Crecy, E., Metzgar, D., Allen, C., Penicaud, M., Lyons, B., Hansen, C. J., de Crecy-Lagard, V. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 77:489-496 (2007).) The cells are maintained in prolonged exponential growth by the serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase is attained. By automating optical density measurement and liquid handling, the Evolugator can perform serial transfer at high rates using large culture volumes, thus approaching the efficiency of a chemostat in evolution of cell fitness. For example, a mutant of Acinetobacter sp ADP1 deficient in a component of the translation apparatus, and having severely hampered growth, was evolved in 200 generations to 80% of the wild-type growth rate. However, in contrast to the chemostat which maintains cells in a single vessel, the machine operates by moving from one “reactor” to the next in subdivided regions of a spool of tubing, thus eliminating any selection for wall-growth. The transfer volume is adjustable, and normally set to about 50%.

It is understood that modifications which do not substantially affect the activity of the various embodiments of this invention are also included within the definition of the invention provided herein. Accordingly, the following examples are intended to illustrate but not limit the present invention.

EXAMPLE I Primary Alcohol Biosynthesis

This Example describes the generation of a microbial organism capable of producing primary alcohols using a malonyl-CoA independent FAS metabolic pathway and acyl-reduction metabolic pathways.

Escherichia coli is used as a target organism to engineer a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway as shown in FIG. 1. E. coli provides a good host for generating a non-naturally occurring microorganism capable of producing primary alcohol, such as octanol. E. coli is amenable to genetic manipulation and is known to be capable of producing various products, like ethanol, effectively under anaerobic conditions.

To generate an E. coli strain engineered to produce primary alcohol, nucleic acids encoding the enzymes utilized in the malonyl-CoA-independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway as described previously, are expressed in E. coli using well known molecular biology techniques (see, for example, Sambrook, supra, 2001; Ausubel supra, 1999; Roberts et al., supra, 1989). In particular, the fadI/fadJ genes (NP_(—)416844.1 and NP_(—)416843.1), encoding the multienzyme complex with ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and enoyl-CoA hydratase activities under anaerobic conditions, and the TDE0597 (NP_(—)971211.1), encoding enoyl-CoA reductase, are cloned into the pZE13 vector (Expressys, Ruelzheim, Germany) under the PA1/lacO promoter. The acy1 gene (YP_(—)047869.1), encoding acyl-CoA reductase, and the alrA gene (BAB12273.1), encoding alcohol dehydrogenase, are cloned into the pZA33 vector (Expressys, Ruelzheim, Germany) under the PA1/lacO promoter. The two sets of plasmids are transformed into E. coli strain MG1655 to express the proteins and enzymes required for the malonyl-CoA-independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway.

The resulting genetically engineered organism is cultured in glucose containing medium following procedures well known in the art (see, for example, Sambrook et al., supra, 2001). The expression of malonyl-CoA-independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway genes is corroborated using methods well known in the art for determining polypeptide expression or enzymatic activity, including for example, Northern blots, PCR amplification of mRNA, immunoblotting. Enzymatic activities of the expressed enzymes are confirmed using assays specific for the individually activities (see, for example, Tucci, supra, 2007; Hoffmeister et al., 2005; Inui et al., supra, 1984; Winkler, 2003; Tani, 2000; Reiser, 1997; Ishige, 2000). The ability of the engineered E. coli strain to produce primary alcohol, such as octanol is confirmed using HPLC, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS).

Microbial strains engineered to have a functional malonyl-CoA-independent FAS and acyl-reduction pathway is further augmented by optimization for efficient utilization of the pathway. Briefly, the engineered strain is assessed to determine whether any of the exogenous genes are expressed at a rate limiting level. Expression is increased for any enzymes expressed at low levels that can limit the flux through the pathway by, for example, introduction of additional gene copy numbers.

To generate better producers, metabolic modeling is utilized to optimize growth conditions. Modeling is also used to design gene knockouts that additionally optimize utilization of the pathway (see, for example, U.S. patent publications US 2002/0012939, US 2003/0224363, US 2004/0029149, US 2004/0072723, US 2003/0059792, US 2002/0168654 and US 2004/0009466, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,127,379). Modeling analysis allows reliable predictions of the effects on cell growth of shifting the metabolism towards more efficient production of primary alcohols. One modeling method is the bilevel optimization approach, OptKnock (Burgard et al., Biotechnol. Bioengineer. 84:647-657 (2003)), which is applied to select gene knockouts that collectively result in better production of primary alcohols. Adaptive evolution also can be used to generate better producers of, for example, the acetyl-CoA intermediate or the primary alcohol product. Adaptive evolution is performed to improve both growth and production characteristics (Fong and Palsson, Nat. Genet. 36:1056-1058 (2004); Alper et al., Science 314:1565-1568 (2006)). Based on the results, subsequent rounds of modeling, genetic engineering and adaptive evolution can be applied to the primary alcohol producer to further increase their production.

For large-scale production of primary alcohols, the above malonyl-CoA independent FAS pathway-containing organism is cultured in a fermenter using a medium known in the art to support growth of the organism under anaerobic conditions. Fermentations are performed in either a batch, fed-batch or continuous manner. Anaerobic conditions are maintained by first sparging the medium with nitrogen and then sealing culture vessel (e.g., flasks can be sealed with a septum and crimp-cap). Microaerobic conditions also can be utilized by providing a small hole for limited aeration. The pH of the medium is maintained at a pH of 7 bp addition of an acid, such as H2SO4. The growth rate is determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (600 nm), and the glucose uptake rate by monitoring carbon source depletion over time. Byproducts such as undesirable alcohols, organic acids, and residual glucose can be quantified by HPLC (Shimadzu) with an HPX-087 column (BioRad), using a refractive index detector for glucose and alcohols, and a UV detector for organic acids, Lin et al., Biotechnol. Bioeng., 775-779 (2005).

Isolation of the product primary alcohol is performed based their insolubility in water. In particular, a two-phase fermentation process is used for separation of these product alcohols where they can either form a separate phase or be readily extracted in an organic phase from the fermentation broth. Residual cells and any other insoluble impurities are removed by filtration, allowing a continuous or semi-continuous fermentation process.

EXAMPLE II Microorganisms having Growth-coupled Production of LCA

This Example describes the construction in silico designed strains for the growth-coupled production of LCA.

E. coli K-12 MG1655 serves as the wild-type strain into which the disruptions are introduced. The disruptions are constructed by incorporating in-frame deletions using homologous recombination via the λ Red recombinase system of Datsenko and Wanner. (Datsenko, K. A. and B. L. Wanner, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 97(12):6640-5 (2000).) The approach involves replacing a chromosomal sequence (i.e., the gene targeted for removal) with a selectable antibiotic resistance gene, which itself is later removed. Knockouts are integrated one by one into the recipient strain. No antibiotic resistance markers will remain after each deletion allowing accumulation of multiple mutations in each target strain. The deletion technology completely removes the gene targeted for removal so as to substantially reduce the possibility of the constructed mutants reverting back to the wild-type.

As described further below, one exemplary growth condition for achieving biosynthesis of LCA includes anaerobic culture or fermentation conditions. In certain embodiments, the non-naturally occurring microbial organism of the invention can be sustained, cultured or fermented under anaerobic or substantially anaerobic conditions. Briefly, anaerobic conditions refers to an environment devoid of oxygen. Substantially anaerobic conditions include, for example, a culture, batch fermentation or continuous fermentation such that the dissolved oxygen concentration in the medium remains between 0 and 10% of saturation. Substantially anaerobic conditions also includes growing or resting cells in liquid medium or on solid agar inside a sealed chamber maintained with an atmosphere of less than 1% oxygen. The percent of oxygen can be maintained by, for example, sparging the culture with an N₂/CO₂ mixture or other suitable non-oxygen gas or gases.

The engineered strains are characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. Cultures are grown overnight and used as inoculum for a fresh batch culture for which measurements are taken during exponential growth. The growth rate is determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (A600). Concentrations of glucose, LCA, and other organic acid byproducts in the culture supernatant are determined by HPLC using an HPX-87H column (BioRad), and are used to calculate uptake and secretion rates. All experiments are performed with triplicate cultures.

The recombinant strains can exhibit suboptimal growth rates until their metabolic networks have adjusted to their missing functionalities. To enable this adjustment, the strains are adaptively evolved. By subjecting the strains to adaptive evolution, cellular growth rate becomes the primary selection pressure and the mutant cells are compelled to reallocate their metabolic fluxes in order to enhance their rates of growth. This reprogramming of metabolism has been recently demonstrated for several E. coli mutants that had been adaptively evolved on various substrates to reach the growth rates predicted a priori by an in silico model. (Fong, S. S. and B. O. Palsson, Nat Genet, 36(10):1056-8 (2004).) These teachings can be applied to Escherichia coli.

Should the OptKnock predictions prove successful; the growth improvements brought about by adaptive evolution will be accompanied by enhanced rates of LCA production. The OptKnock-generated strains are adaptively evolved in triplicate (running in parallel) due to differences in the evolutionary patterns witnessed previously in E. coli (Fong, S. S. and B. O. Palsson, Nat Genet, 36(10):1056-8 (2004); Fong, S. S., J. Y. Marciniak, and B. O. Palsson, J Bacteriol, 185(21):6400-8 (2003); Ibarra, R. U., J. S. Edwards, and B. O. Palsson, Nature, 420(6912):186-189 (2002)) that could potentially result in one strain having superior production qualities over the others. Evolutions are run for a period of 2-6 weeks, depending upon the rate of growth improvement attained. In general, evolutions are stopped once a stable phenotype is obtained.

The adaptive evolution procedure involves maintaining the cells in prolonged exponential growth by the serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase is attained. Briefly, one procedure allows cells to reach mid-exponential growth (A₆₀₀=0.5) before being diluted and passed to fresh medium (i.e., M9 minimal media with 2 g/L carbon source). This process is repeated, allowing for about 500 generations for each culture. Culture samples are taken, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and the optical culture density recorded for each day throughout the course of the evolutions. The evolutions are performed in triplicate due to differences in the evolutionary patterns witnessed previously Donnelly et al., Appl Biochem Biotechnol 70-72: 187-98 (1998); Vemuri et al., Appl Environ Microbiol 68:1715-27 (2002), that could potentially result in one strain having superior production qualities over the others. The adaptive evolution step can take up to about two months or more. The adaptive evolution step also can be less than two months depending on the strain design, for example.

Another process can evolve cells using automation technology and is commercially available by Evolugate, LLC (Gainesville, Fla.) under a service contract. The procedure employs the Evolugator™ evolution machine which results in significant time and effort savings over non-automated evolution techniques. Cells are maintained in prolonged exponential growth by the serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase is attained. By automating optical density measurement and liquid handling, the Evolugator can perform serial transfer at high rates using large culture volumes, thus approaching the efficiency of a chemostat for evolution of cell fitness. For example, a mutant of Acinetobacter sp ADP1 deficient in a component of the translation apparatus, and having severely hampered growth, was evolved in 200 generations to 80% of the wild-type growth rate. However, in contrast to the chemostat which maintains cells in a single vessel, the machine operates by moving from one “reactor” to the next in subdivided regions of a spool of tubing, thus eliminating any selection for wall-growth. The transfer volume is adjustable, and normally set to about 50%.

In contrast to a chemostat, which maintains cells in a single vessel, the machine operates by moving from one “reactor” to the next in subdivided regions of a spool of tubing, thus eliminating any selection for wall-growth. Culture samples are taken, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and the optical culture density recorded each day throughout the course of the evolutions. The Evolugator is used for each strain until a stable growth rate is achieved. Growth rate improvements of nearly 50% have been observed in two weeks using this device. The above-described strains are adaptively evolved in triplicate (running in parallel). At ten day intervals, culture samples are taken from the Evolugator, purified on agar plates, and cultured in triplicate as discussed above to assess strain physiology. Evolugator™ is a continuous culture device that exhibits significant time and effort savings over traditional evolution techniques. (de Crecy et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 77:489-496 (2007)).

Following the adaptive evolution process, the new strains are again characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. These results are compared to the OptKnock predictions by plotting actual growth and production yields along side the production envelopes. The most successful OptKnock design/evolution combinations are chosen to pursue further, and is characterized in lab-scale batch and continuous fermentations. The growth-coupled biochemical production concept behind the OptKnock approach should also result in the generation of genetically stable overproducers. Thus, the cultures can be maintained in continuous mode for one month to evaluate long-term stability. Periodic samples will be taken to ensure that yield and productivity are maintained throughout the experiment.

EXAMPLE III Microorganisms having Growth-coupled Production of LCA

This Example describes the construction in silico designed strains for the growth-coupled production of LCA.

Gene deletions are introduced into S. cerevisiae by homologous recombination of the gene interrupted by the KanMX cassette, flanked by loxP sites enabling removal and recycling of the resistance marker (e.g. URA3) (Wach, A., et al., PCR-based gene targeting in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in Yeast Gene Analysis, M. F. Tuite, Editor. 1998, Academic Press: San Diego). Starting with a loxP-kanMX-loxP sequence on a plasmid, an artificial construct with this sequence flanked by fragments of the gene of interest are created by PCR using primers containing both 45-50 bp target sequence followed by a region homologous to the above cassette. This linear DNA is transformed into wild-type S. cerevisiae, and recombinants are selected by geneticin resistance (Wach, A., et al. supra]. Colonies are purified and tested for correct double crossover by PCR. To remove the KanMX marker, a plasmid containing the Cre recombinase and bleomycin resistance are introduced, promoting recombination between the loxP sites (Gueldener, U., et al., Nucleic Acids Res. e23 (2002))]. Finally, the resulting strain is cured of the Cre plasmid by successive culturing on media without any antibiotic present. The final strain will have a markerless gene deletion, and thus the same method can be used to introduce multiple deletions in the same strain.

The strains are constructed, evolved, and tested by methods disclosed herein. Genes can be inserted into S. cerevisiae, for example, using several methods. These methods can be plasmid-based whereas others allow for the incorporation of the gene in the chromosome. The latter approach employs an integrative promoter based expression vector, for example, the pGAPZ or the pGAPZα vector based on the GAP promoter. The expression vector constitutes the GAP promoter, the HIS4 wild-type allele for integration and the 3′ AOX transcription termination region of P. pastoris in addition to a KanMX cassette, flanked by loxP sites enabling removal and recycling of the resistance marker. Both of these vectors are commercially available from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, Calif.).

The method entails the synthesis and amplification of the gene of interest with suitable primers, followed by the digestion of the gene at a unique restriction site, such as that created by the EcoRI/XhoI enzymes (Vellanki et al., Biotechnol. Lett. 29:313-318 (2007)). The gene is inserted at the EcoRI and XhoI sites in the expression vector, downstream of the GAP promoter. The gene insertion is verified by PCR and/or DNA sequence analysis. The recombinant plasmid is then linearized with NarI for histidine integration, purified and integrated into the chromosomal DNA of S. cerevisiae using an appropriate transformation method. The cells are plated on the YPD medium with the appropriate selection marker (e.g., kanamycin) and incubated for 2-3 days. The transformants will then be analyzed for the requisite gene insert by colony PCR.

To remove the antibiotic marker, a plasmid containing the Cre recombinase is introduced, promoting recombination between the loxP sites (Gueldener et al., supra). Finally, the resulting strain is cured of the Cre plasmid by successive culturing on media without any antibiotic present. The final strain will have a markerless gene deletion, and thus the same method can be used to introduce multiple insertions in the same strain.

The engineered strains are characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. Cultures are grown overnight and used as inoculum for a fresh batch culture for which measurements are taken during exponential growth. The growth rate is determined by measuring optical density using a spectrophotometer (A600). Concentrations of glucose, alcohols, and other organic acid byproducts in the culture supernatant are determined by analytical methods including HPLC using an HPX-87H column (BioRad), or GC-MS, and used to calculate uptake and secretion rates. All experiments are performed with triplicate cultures.

The knockout strains are initially anticipated to exhibit suboptimal growth rates until their metabolic networks have adjusted to their missing functionalities. To enable this adjustment, the strains will be adaptively evolved. By subjecting the strains to adaptive evolution, cellular growth rate becomes the primary selection pressure and the mutant cells will be compelled to reallocate their metabolic fluxes in order to enhance their rates of growth. This reprogramming of metabolism has been recently demonstrated for several E. coli mutants that had been adaptively evolved on various substrates to reach the growth rates predicted a priori by an in silico model. The growth improvements brought about by adaptive evolution can be accompanied by enhanced rates of LCA production. The OptKnock-generated strains can be adaptively evolved in triplicate (running in parallel) due to differences in the evolutionary patterns witnessed previously in E. coli that could potentially result in one strain having superior production qualities over the others. Evolutions can be run for a period of 2-6 weeks, or longer depending upon the rate of growth improvement attained. In general, evolutions can be stopped once a stable phenotype is obtained.

The adaptive evolution procedure involves maintaining the cells in prolonged exponential growth by the serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase is attained. Briefly, one procedure allows cells to reach mid-exponential growth (A₆₀₀=0.5) before being diluted and passed to fresh medium (i.e., M9 minimal media with 2 g/L carbon source). This process is repeated, allowing for about 500 generations for each culture. Culture samples are taken, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and the optical culture density recorded for each day throughout the course of the evolutions. The evolutions are performed in triplicate due to differences in the evolutionary patterns witnessed previously Donnelly et al., Appl Biochem Biotechnol. 70-72: 187-98 (1998); Vemuri et al., Appl Environ Microbiol. 68:1715-27 (2002), that could potentially result in one strain having superior production qualities over the others. The adaptive evolution step can take up to about two months or more. The adaptive evolution step also can be less than two months depending on the strain design, for example.

Another process can evolve cells using automation technology and is commercially available by Evolugate, LLC (Gainesville, Fla.) under a service contract. The procedure employs the Evolugator™ evolution machine which results in significant time and effort savings over non-automated evolution techniques. Cells are maintained in prolonged exponential growth by the serial passage of batch cultures into fresh medium before the stationary phase is attained. By automating optical density measurement and liquid handling, the Evolugator can perform serial transfer at high rates using large culture volumes, thus approaching the efficiency of a chemostat for evolution of cell fitness. In contrast to a chemostat, which maintains cells in a single vessel, the machine operates by moving from one “reactor” to the next in subdivided regions of a spool of tubing, thus eliminating any selection for wall-growth. Culture samples are taken, frozen with liquid nitrogen, and the optical culture density recorded each day throughout the course of the evolutions. The Evolugator is used for each strain until a stable growth rate is achieved. Growth rate improvements of nearly 50% have been observed in two weeks using this device. The above-described strains are adaptively evolved in triplicate (running in parallel). At ten day intervals, culture samples are taken from the Evolugator, purified on agar plates, and cultured in triplicate as discussed above to assess strain physiology.

Following the adaptive evolution process, the new strains are again characterized by measuring the growth rate, the substrate uptake rate, and the product/byproduct secretion rate. These results are compared to the OptKnock predictions by plotting actual growth and production yields along side the production envelopes. The most successful OptKnock design/evolution combinations are chosen to pursue further, and is characterized in lab-scale batch and continuous fermentations. The growth-coupled biochemical production concept behind the OptKnock approach should also result in the generation of genetically stable overproducers. Thus, the cultures can be maintained in continuous mode for one month to evaluate long-term stability. Periodic samples will be taken to ensure that yield and productivity are maintained throughout the experiment.

Described herein above, is the application of the OptKnock methodology for generating useful gene disruption targets. Multiple disruption strategies were enumerated for establishing the coupling between LCA production and Escherichia coli growth. This methodology is applicable to a wide variety of cells and microorganisms other than Escherichia coli and also can utilize metabolic modeling and simulation systems other than OptKnock.

The combined computational and engineering platform described herein is generally applicable to any stoichiometric model organism and the teachings and guidance provided herein will allow those skilled in the art to design and implement sets of genetic manipulations for metabolic alterations that lead to the growth-coupled production of any biochemical product.

Throughout this application various publications have been referenced within parentheses. The disclosures of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference in this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.

The present disclosure provides gene disruption strategies for growth-coupled production of LCA in Escherichia coli under anaerobic conditions. The suggested strategies can increase product yields significantly over the reported yields for each of these products. A comprehensive list of the strategies is listed in Table 1 for LCA production. The associated genes and stoichiometries for each of the reaction disruption are catalogued in Table 2. Table 3 lists metabolite abbreviations and their corresponding names along with their location.

TABLE 1 The list of all disruption strategies identified by OptKnock that are most likely to provide growth-coupled LCA produciton. 1 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi PGDHY PYK DHAPT 2 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi PGL PYK DHAPT 3 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT G6PDHy MDH PFLi PYK DHAPT 4 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT EDA MDH PFLi PYK DHAPT 5 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGDH PGI PTAr 6 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGDH PGI 7 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGI PTAr TAL 8 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGI PTAr TKT1 9 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGI TKT1 10 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGI TAL 11 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy PTAr 12 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr TPI 13 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy TPI 14 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFK PTAr 15 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA GLCpts GLUDy 16 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PFK 17 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGI RPE 18 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGI PTAr RPE 19 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGI PTAr TKT2 20 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGI TKT2 21 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGDH PGI 22 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGDH PGI PTAr 23 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGI TKT1 24 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGI TAL 25 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI PTAr TAL 26 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI PTAr TKT1 27 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PFK 28 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts TPI 29 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA GLCpts 30 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts PTAr 31 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK PTAr 32 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr TPI 33 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGI RPE 34 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI PTAr RPE 35 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts GLUDy PFLi PGI 36 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGI TKT2 37 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI PTAr TKT2 38 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts GLUDy PFLi TPI 39 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 GLCpts GLUDy PFLi 40 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts GLUDy PFK PFLi 41 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM NADH6 PGI 42 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH NADH6 PGI 43 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH NADH6 PFK 44 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA FUM NADH6 45 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM NADH6 TPI 46 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH NADH6 TPI 47 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA MDH NADH6 48 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM NADH6 PFK 49 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts GLUDy PFLi PGI 50 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy MDH PFLi PGI 51 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFLi PGI SUCD4 52 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH6 PFLi PGI 53 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts PFLi PGI 54 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PGDH PGI 55 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PGDH PGI PTAr 56 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts GLUDy PFK PFLi 57 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FUM GLCpts GLUDy PFLi 58 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy MDH PFK PFLi 59 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts GLUDy PFLi TPI 60 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy MDH PFLi 61 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy MDH PFLi TPI 62 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH6 PFLi TPI 63 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts PFLi TPI 64 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 GLCpts PFLi 65 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts NADH6 PFLi 66 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts PFLi SUCD4 67 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts PFK PFLi 68 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFLi SUCD4 TPI 69 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK PFLi SUCD4 70 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH6 PFK PFLi 71 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLCpts MDH PFLi PGI 72 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLCpts PFLi PGI 73 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH PGI PPS 74 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PGI PPS 75 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PGI PTAr TAL 76 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PGI TAL 77 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PGI TKT1 78 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PGI PTAr TKT1 79 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 TPI 80 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PFK 81 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PTAr TPI 82 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFK PTAr 83 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA GLUDy HEX1 84 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 PTAr 85 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLCpts MDH PFLi TPI 86 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA GLCpts MDH PFLi 87 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLCpts MDH PFK PFLi 88 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLCpts PFK PFLi 89 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLCpts PFLi TPI 90 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA FUM GLCpts PFLi 91 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PGI PTAr RPE 92 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PGI RPE 93 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PGI 94 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PGI 95 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA MDH PPS 96 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PFK PPS 97 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH PFK PPS 98 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH PPS TPI 99 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PPS TPI 100 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA FUM PPS 101 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy HEX1 PGI TKT2 102 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PGI PTAr TKT2 103 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA FUM GLUDy 104 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PFK 105 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA GLUDy MDH 106 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy TPI 107 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PFK 108 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH TPI 109 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGDH PGI 110 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGDH PGI PTAr 111 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGI TAL 112 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI PTAr TKT1 113 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGI TKT1 114 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI PTAr TAL 115 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy TPI 116 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK PTAr 117 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy PTAr 118 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA GLUDy 119 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PFK 120 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr TPI 121 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGI RPE 122 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI PTAr RPE 123 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI PTAr TKT2 124 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGI TKT2 125 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGDH PGI PTAr 126 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PGDH PGI 127 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FUM PGI 128 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 MDH PGI 129 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI PTAr TAL 130 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI PTAr TKT1 131 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PGI TKT1 132 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PGI TAL 133 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFLi PGI SUCD4 134 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy HEX1 PFLi PGI 135 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 NADH6 PFLi PGI 136 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA HEX1 137 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 PTAr 138 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK PTAr 139 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PFK 140 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 TPI 141 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PTAr TPI 142 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI PTAr RPE 143 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PGI RPE 144 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FBA FUM 145 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FBA MDH 146 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 MDH TPI 147 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FUM PFK 148 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FUM TPI 149 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 MDH PFK 150 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 NADH6 PFLi 151 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 NADH6 PFK PFLi 152 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 PFLi SUCD4 153 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy HEX1 PFK PFLi 154 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFK PFLi SUCD4 155 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 NADH6 PFLi TPI 156 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 GLUDy HEX1 PFLi 157 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFLi SUCD4 TPI 158 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy HEX1 PFLi TPI 159 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 MDH PFLi PGI 160 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy HEX1 PFLi PGI 161 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI PTAr TKT2 162 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr HEX1 PGI TKT2 163 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 MDH PFK 164 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA GLUDy HEX1 MDH 165 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 MDH TPI 166 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA FUM GLUDy HEX1 167 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy HEX1 PFK 168 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy HEX1 TPI 169 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FUM GLUDy HEX1 PFLi 170 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy HEX1 PFLi TPI 171 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 MDH PFLi TPI 172 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 MDH PFK PFLi 173 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 MDH PFLi 174 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy HEX1 PFK PFLi 175 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy HEX1 PGI 176 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 MDH PGI 177 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH PGI 178 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PGI 179 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH NADH6 PGI 180 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy NADH6 PGI 181 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGDH PGI 182 ADHEr LDH_D PGDH PGI PTAr 183 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGDH PGI 184 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PFLi PGI 185 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH TPI 186 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM TPI 187 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH PFK 188 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA FUM 189 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FBA MDH 190 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PFK 191 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGI TKT1 192 ADHEr LDH_D PGI PTAr TAL 193 ADHEr LDH_D PGI PTAr TKT1 194 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGI TAL 195 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA GLUDy MDH NADH6 196 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFK 197 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH NADH6 TPI 198 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy NADH6 TPI 199 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFK 200 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA FUM GLUDy NADH6 201 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGI TAL 202 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGI TKT1 203 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PFK 204 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 TPI 205 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA GLUDy HEX1 206 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr PYK SUCD4 207 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PYK SUCD4 208 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PTAr PYK 209 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 GLUDy PYK 210 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 GLUDy NADH6 PTAr PYK 211 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FDH2 GLUDy NADH6 PYK 212 ADHEr LDH_D PFK PTAr 213 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr TPI 214 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FBA 215 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr TPI 216 ADHEr LDH_D FBA PTAr 217 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PFK 218 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFLi PGI 219 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PGI PRO1z SUCD4 220 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGI RPE 221 ADHEr LDH_D PGI PTAr RPE 222 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGI TKT2 223 ADHEr LDH_D PGI PTAr TKT2 224 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGI RPE 225 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFLi TPI 226 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFK PFLi 227 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 GLUDy PFLi 228 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 229 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 TPI 230 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 231 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi PGI SUCD4 232 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFLi PGI 233 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFLi PGI 234 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi PGI SUCD4 235 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLUDy MDH PFLi PGI 236 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLUDy PFLi PGI 237 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGI TKT2 238 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFK PFLi SUCD4 239 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFK PFLi 240 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 TPI 241 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFK PFLi 242 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FUM GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 243 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi SUCD4 TPI 244 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFK PFLi SUCD4 245 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFLi 246 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy MDH PFLi SUCD4 247 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFLi 248 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFLi TPI 249 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFLi TPI 250 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM NADH6 PYK 251 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH NADH6 PYK 252 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFLi PGI PTAr 253 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PFLi PGI 254 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA GLUDy MDH PFLi 255 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLUDy MDH PFK PFLi 256 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA FUM GLUDy PFLi 257 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLUDy MDH PFLi TPI 258 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLUDy PFLi TPI 259 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLUDy PFK PFLi 260 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGL PTAr PYK SUCD4 261 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy ME2 PTAr PYK 262 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr ME2 PGL PYK SUCD4 263 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 ME2 PGL PYK 264 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 ME2 PGL PTAr PYK 265 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy ME2 PTAr PYK SUCD4 266 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 G6PDHy ME2 PYK 267 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy ME2 PYK SUCD4 268 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH PTAr PYK SUCD4 269 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy MDH NADH6 PYK 270 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy MDH PTAr PYK 271 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PGL PTAr PYK 272 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy MDH PYK SUCD4 273 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr MDH PGL PYK SUCD4 274 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PGL PTAr PYK 275 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr MDH NADH6 PGL PYK 276 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 G6PDHy MDH PYK 277 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGL PTAr PYK SUCD4 278 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 MDH PGL PYK 279 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH NADH6 PTAr PYK 280 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 PGI 281 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PTAr PYK 282 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy MDH PYK 283 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FUM GLUDy PYK 284 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PTAr PYK 285 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGDH PGI 286 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 TPI 287 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 PFK 288 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA GLUDy NADH6 289 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFLi PGI 290 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PYK 291 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PYK 292 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI TKT1 293 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI TAL 294 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PFK 295 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA HEX1 296 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 TPI 297 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFLi TPI 298 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK PFLi 299 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 PFLi 300 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI RPE 301 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy NADH6 PGI PYK 302 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy NADH6 PGI PTAr PYK 303 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI TKT2 304 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 PYK 305 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PYK SUCD4 306 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PTAr PYK 307 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr PYK SUCD4 308 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FDH2 NADH6 PYK 309 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PTAr PYK 310 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PGI 311 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PFLi PGI 312 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFLi PGI PTAr 313 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFLi PYK 314 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PGDH PGI 315 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PGDH PGI 316 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi PGI 317 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi PGI 318 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA NADH6 319 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PFK 320 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 TPI 321 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA FUM GLUDy 322 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PFK 323 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FBA GLUDy MDH 324 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH TPI 325 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy TPI 326 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PFK 327 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy ME2 PFLi PYK 328 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 ME2 PFLi PGL PYK 329 ADHEr LDH_D EDA FRD2 ME2 PFLi PYK 330 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 ME2 PFLi PGDHY PYK 331 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFK PFLi 332 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy MDH PFLi 333 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi TPI 334 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FUM GLUDy PFLi 335 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi TPI 336 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFK PFLi 337 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi PGI SUCD4 338 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFLi PGI 339 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFLi PGI 340 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PFLi PGL PYK 341 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy MDH PFLi PYK 342 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PFLi PGDHY PYK 343 ADHEr LDH_D EDA FRD2 MDH PFLi PYK 344 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr ASPT MDH PYK 345 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PTAr PYK 346 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr ASPT FUM PYK 347 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PTAr PYK 348 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PGI 349 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PGI 350 ADHEr LDH_D FBA PFLi SUCD4 351 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFK PFLi 352 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi SUCD4 TPI 353 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 PFLi 354 ADHEr LDH_D PFK PFLi SUCD4 355 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFLi TPI 356 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFLi TPI 357 ADHEr LDH_D FBA NADH6 PFLi 358 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFK PFLi 359 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi PGI 360 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFLi PGI 361 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLUDy MDH PFLi PYK 362 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLUDy PFLi PYK 363 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FUM PYK 364 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi TPI 365 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFLi TPI 366 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA MDH PFLi 367 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FBA FUM PFLi 368 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFK PFLi 369 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFK PFLi 370 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr NADH6 PGI PYK 371 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PGI PTAr PYK 372 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM PYK 373 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MALS MDH PYK 374 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r ICL MDH PYK 375 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PGDH PGI 376 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi PGI 377 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy PFLi 378 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi TPI 379 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK PFLi 380 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PGI TAL 381 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PGI TKT1 382 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PRO1z PYK SUCD4 383 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFLi PYK 384 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi PYK SUCD4 385 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi PYK SUCD4 386 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFLi PYK 387 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PGI 388 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH PFLi PYK SUCD4 389 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi PGDHY PYK SUCD4 390 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi PGL PYK SUCD4 391 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH PFLi PYK SUCD4 392 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH NADH6 PYK 393 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy NADH6 PYK 394 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr AKGD ATPS4r GLUDy PYK 395 ADHEr LDH_D AKGD ATPS4r GLUDy PTAr PYK 396 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFLi PYK 397 ADHEr LDH_D ALAR PFLi PRO1z PYK SUCD4 398 ADHEr LDH_D DAAD PFLi PRO1z PYK SUCD4 399 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi PGDH PGI 400 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi PGI 401 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PFLi PYK 402 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PFLi PYK 403 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi TPI 404 ADHEr LDH_D FBA PFLi 405 ADHEr LDH_D PFK PFLi 406 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFLi PYK 407 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi PYK 408 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi PGI TKT1 409 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi PGI TAL 410 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy NADH6 411 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH NADH6 412 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy ME2 PFLi PYK SUCD4 413 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 PFLi PYK SUCD4 414 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PFLi PGDHY PYK SUCD4 415 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PFLi PGL PYK SUCD4 416 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PFLi PGDHY PYK 417 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH NADH6 PFLi PYK 418 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH NADH6 PFLi PYK 419 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PFLi PGL PYK 420 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 MDH NADH6 421 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r CBMK2 FUM NADH6 422 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 PFLi PGI RPE 423 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 GLU5K PFLi PGI RPE 424 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 G5SD PFLi PGI RPE 425 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH PTAr 426 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy PTAr 427 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi PGI 428 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM GLUDy 429 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r GLUDy MDH 430 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr AKGD ATPS4r PYK 431 ADHEr LDH_D AKGD ATPS4r PTAr PYK 432 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH NADH6 433 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM NADH6 434 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy GLCpts GLUDy PTAr 435 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGL 436 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGDH PTAr 437 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGL PTAr 438 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy GLCpts GLUDy 439 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy PGDH 440 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr TKT1 441 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr TAL 442 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy TKT1 443 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy TAL 444 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy RPE 445 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr RPE 446 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy TKT2 447 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr TKT2 448 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGDH PTAr THD2 449 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy GLCpts PTAr THD2 450 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy GLCpts THD2 451 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGL THD2 452 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGDH THD2 453 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGL PTAr THD2 454 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts THD2 TKT1 455 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts TAL THD2 456 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr TAL THD2 457 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr THD2 TKT1 458 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r MDH 459 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT ATPS4r FUM 460 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr RPE THD2 461 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts RPE THD2 462 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr ATPS4r PYK SUCOAS 463 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PTAr PYK SUCOAS 464 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts GLUDy PFLi 465 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr THD2 TKT2 466 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts THD2 TKT2 467 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts PFLi THD2 468 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGDH THD2 469 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGL PTAr THD2 470 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy GLUDy PTAr THD2 471 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGDH PTAr THD2 472 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGL THD2 473 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy GLUDy THD2 474 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFLi THD2 475 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr THD2 TKT1 476 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr TAL THD2 477 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy TAL THD2 478 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy THD2 TKT1 479 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGDH 480 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts PGL 481 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGDH PTAr 482 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGL PTAr 483 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy GLCpts 484 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy GLCpts PTAr 485 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr RPE THD2 486 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy RPE THD2 487 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PTAr 488 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts GLUDy 489 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr TKT1 490 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr TAL 491 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts TAL 492 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts TKT1 493 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFLi PTAr PYK 494 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr NADH6 PFLi PYK 495 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy THD2 TKT2 496 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr THD2 TKT2 497 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts RPE 498 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr RPE 499 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts TKT2 500 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr TKT2 501 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGDH 502 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGL PTAr 503 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy PGL 504 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy GLUDy 505 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGDH PTAr 506 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy GLUDy PTAr 507 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr TKT1 508 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy TKT1 509 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy TAL 510 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr TAL 511 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr RPE 512 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy RPE 513 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr TKT2 514 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy TKT2 515 ADHEr LDH_D PGDH PTAr THD2 516 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGDH THD2 517 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy PTAr THD2 518 ADHEr LDH_D PGL PTAr THD2 519 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGL THD2 520 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy THD2 521 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr TAL THD2 522 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr THD2 TKT1 523 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr TAL THD2 524 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr THD2 TKT1 525 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr RPE THD2 526 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr RPE THD2 527 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PFLi 528 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 529 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLCpts PFLi 530 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr THD2 TKT2 531 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr THD2 TKT2 532 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLCpts 533 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PTAr 534 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFLi THD2 535 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM GLUDy 536 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy MDH 537 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts PFLi SUCD4 538 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts MDH PFLi SUCD4 539 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 540 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi SUCD4 541 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PFLi 542 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PFLi 543 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi SUCD4 THD2 544 ADHEr LDH_D FUM PFLi SUCD4 THD2 545 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLCpts PFLi 546 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLCpts MDH PFLi 547 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM GLUDy PFLi 548 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT GLUDy MDH PFLi 549 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFLi SUCD4 THD2 550 ADHEr LDH_D PGDH PTAr 551 ADHEr LDH_D PGL PTAr 552 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGL 553 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy PTAr 554 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr G6PDHy 555 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr PGDH 556 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFLi THD2 557 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi THD2 558 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr GLUDy 559 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PTAr 560 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr TAL 561 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr TAL 562 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr TKT1 563 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr TKT1 564 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr RPE 565 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr RPE 566 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 567 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts GLUDy PFLi 568 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy MDH PFLi 569 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr TKT2 570 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr TKT2 571 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 THD2 572 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi THD2 573 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi THD2 574 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy NADH6 PFLi 575 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 PFLi 576 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts MDH PFLi THD2 577 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts PFLi THD2 578 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr CBMK2 FRD2 PFLi 579 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FRD2 PFLi PTAr 580 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PTAr SUCD4 581 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PTAr 582 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr MDH SUCD4 583 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FRD2 MDH 584 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 MDH NADH6 PTAr 585 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr FDH2 MDH NADH6 586 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH6 PFLi THD2 587 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFLi SUCD4 588 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH12 NADH6 PFLi 589 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM PGL 590 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH PGDH 591 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM PGDH 592 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM G6PDHy 593 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts MDH NADH6 PFLi 594 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts NADH6 PFLi 595 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PFLi 596 ADHEr LDH_D ALAR PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 597 ADHEr LDH_D DAAD PFLi PRO1z SUCD4 598 ADHEr LDH_D ACKr 599 ADHEr LDH_D PTAr 600 ADHEr LDH_D FUM PFLi SUCD4 601 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi SUCD4 602 ADHEr LDH_D FUM NADH12 NADH6 PFLi 603 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH12 NADH6 PFLi 604 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH TKT1 605 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM TKT1 606 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH TAL 607 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM TAL 608 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PFLi PYK 609 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PFLi 610 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PFLi 611 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH RPE 612 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM RPE 613 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi SUCD4 THD2 614 ADHEr LDH_D NADH12 NADH6 PFLi THD2 615 ADHEr LDH_D FUM NADH6 PFLi THD2 616 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PFLi THD2 617 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH TKT2 618 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM TKT2 619 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts NADH6 PFLi 620 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy NADH6 PFLi THD2 621 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFLi SUCD4 622 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy NADH12 NADH6 PFLi 623 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PFLi 624 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PFLi 625 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM NADH6 626 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH NADH6 627 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r G6PDHy GLUDy NADH6 628 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 PGDH 629 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 PGL 630 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r MDH PFLi THD2 631 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r FUM PFLi THD2 632 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 TKT1 633 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 TAL 634 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi THD2 635 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts MDH PFLi 636 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLCpts PFLi 637 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy NADH6 PFLi 638 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 RPE 639 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 TKT2 640 ADHEr LDH_D FUM PFLi THD2 641 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi THD2 642 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFLi THD2 643 ADHEr LDH_D PFLi SUCD4 644 ADHEr LDH_D NADH12 NADH6 PFLi 645 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PFLi 646 ADHEr LDH_D FUM NADH6 PFLi 647 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PFLi 648 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PGL 649 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 PGDH 650 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r G6PDHy NADH6 651 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 TAL 652 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 TKT1 653 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 GLU5K NADH6 PFLi 654 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 G5SD NADH6 PFLi 655 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 CBMK2 NADH6 PFLi 656 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi THD2 657 ADHEr LDH_D NADH6 PFLi 658 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 RPE 659 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 TKT2 660 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FUM G5SD PFLi 661 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 GLU5K MDH PFLi 662 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FUM GLU5K PFLi 663 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 G5SD MDH PFLi 664 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 CBMK2 FUM PFLi 665 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 CBMK2 MDH PFLi 666 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFLi 667 ADHEr LDH_D FUM PFLi 668 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi RPE 669 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi TAL 670 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi TKT1 671 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi TKT2 672 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy PFLi 673 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy NADH6 674 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi RPE 675 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi TAL 676 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi TKT1 677 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi TKT2 678 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r CBMK2 PFLi 679 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r PFLi 680 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PGDHY PYK 681 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT EDA MDH PYK 682 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r CBMK2 NADH6 683 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r NADH6 684 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI PPS 685 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy ME2 THD2 686 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGL THD2 687 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDH PGDHY THD2 688 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 PGDH THD2 689 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 TAL THD2 690 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDHY TAL THD2 691 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDHY THD2 TKT1 692 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 THD2 TKT1 693 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDHY RPE THD2 694 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 RPE THD2 695 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGL THD2 696 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH THD2 697 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH PGDH THD2 698 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDH PGDHY THD2 699 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDHY THD2 TKT2 700 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 THD2 TKT2 701 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDHY THD2 TKT1 702 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH THD2 TKT1 703 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDHY TAL THD2 704 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH TAL THD2 705 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r GLUDy HEX1 PGI 706 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDHY RPE THD2 707 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH RPE THD2 708 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDHY THD2 TKT2 709 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH THD2 TKT2 710 ADHEr LDH_D ATPS4r HEX1 PGI 711 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 HEX1 MDH PGI 712 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 MDH PGI SUCD4 713 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI SUCOAS 714 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 MDH NADH6 PGI 715 ADHEr LDH_D FUM HEX1 NADH6 PGI 716 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 FUM HEX1 PGI 717 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PGI 718 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS THD2 719 ADHEr LDH_D THD2 720 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS TKT2 TPI 721 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK SUCOAS TKT2 722 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts SUCOAS TKT2 723 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy TKT2 TPI 724 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy TKT2 725 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFK TKT2 726 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI SUCOAS 727 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PGI 728 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK RPE SUCOAS 729 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts RPE SUCOAS TPI 730 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts RPE SUCOAS 731 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy RPE TPI 732 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy RPE 733 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFK RPE 734 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy SUCOAS TKT2 735 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK SUCOAS TKT2 736 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS TKT2 TPI 737 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFK SUCOAS 738 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS TPI 739 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS 740 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK TKT2 741 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts TKT2 742 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts TKT2 TPI 743 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI SUCOAS 744 ADHEr LDH_D PGDHY PGI 745 ADHEr LDH_D EDA PGI 746 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PGI 747 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK RPE SUCOAS 748 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy RPE SUCOAS TPI 749 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy RPE SUCOAS 750 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts RPE TPI 751 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK RPE 752 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts RPE 753 ADHEr LDH_D PFK SUCOAS TKT2 754 ADHEr LDH_D FBA SUCOAS TKT2 755 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS TKT2 TPI 756 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS TPI 757 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK SUCOAS 758 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts SUCOAS 759 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts GLUDy 760 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy TPI 761 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy PFK 762 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK TKT2 763 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy TKT2 764 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy TKT2 TPI 765 ADHEr LDH_D PGI SUCOAS 766 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PGI 767 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT G6PDHy MDH PYK 768 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PGL PYK 769 ADHEr LDH_D FBA RPE SUCOAS 770 ADHEr LDH_D PFK RPE SUCOAS 771 ADHEr LDH_D RPE SUCOAS TPI 772 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK SUCOAS TKT1 773 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 SUCOAS TAL 774 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK SUCOAS TAL 775 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 SUCOAS TKT1 TPI 776 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 SUCOAS TKT1 777 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 SUCOAS TAL TPI 778 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy RPE TPI 779 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy RPE 780 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK RPE 781 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 TKT1 TPI 782 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFK TKT1 783 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 TKT1 784 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 TAL TPI 785 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy HEX1 TAL 786 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy HEX1 PFK TAL 787 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS TPI 788 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK SUCOAS 789 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy SUCOAS 790 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK SUCOAS TKT2 791 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 SUCOAS TKT2 792 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts TPI 793 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts PFK 794 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLCpts 795 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PYK TKT2 796 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PYK SUCD4 TKT2 797 ADHEr LDH_D PFK TKT2 798 ADHEr LDH_D FBA TKT2 799 ADHEr LDH_D TKT2 TPI 800 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 SUCOAS TAL TPI 801 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA SUCOAS TAL 802 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA SUCOAS TKT1 803 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 PFK SUCOAS TAL 804 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 PFK SUCOAS TKT1 805 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 SUCOAS TKT1 TPI 806 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA HEX1 SUCOAS 807 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 HEX1 SUCOAS TPI 808 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 HEX1 PFK SUCOAS 809 ADHEr LDH_D PGI 810 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK TAL 811 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 TAL TPI 812 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 TAL 813 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 PFK TKT1 814 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 TKT1 TPI 815 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 TKT1 816 ADHEr LDH_D PYK RPE SUCD4 SUCOAS 817 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK RPE SUCOAS 818 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PYK RPE 819 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PYK RPE SUCD4 820 ADHEr LDH_D RPE TPI 821 ADHEr LDH_D PFK RPE 822 ADHEr LDH_D FBA RPE 823 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS TPI 824 ADHEr LDH_D PFK SUCOAS 825 ADHEr LDH_D FBA SUCOAS 826 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy TPI 827 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLUDy 828 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PFK 829 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PYK SUCOAS 830 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PYK SUCD4 SUCOAS 831 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 MDH PFK SUCD4 832 ADHEr LDH_D HEX1 MDH SUCD4 TPI 833 ADHEr LDH_D FBA HEX1 MDH SUCD4 834 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 HEX1 MDH TPI 835 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 HEX1 MDH 836 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 HEX1 MDH PFK 837 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH TKT1 TPI 838 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH TAL TPI 839 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFK SUCD4 TKT1 840 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PFK SUCD4 TAL 841 ADHEr LDH_D FBA MDH SUCD4 TKT1 842 ADHEr LDH_D FBA MDH SUCD4 TAL 843 ADHEr LDH_D MDH SUCD4 TAL TPI 844 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PFK TKT1 845 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PFK TAL 846 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 MDH TAL 847 ADHEr LDH_D MDH SUCD4 TKT1 TPI 848 ADHEr LDH_D FBA FRD2 MDH TKT1 849 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 TKT2 850 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK TKT2 851 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK TKT2 852 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 PFK TAL 853 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 TAL TPI 854 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA TKT1 855 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 TKT1 TPI 856 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA TAL 857 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 PFK TKT1 858 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 HEX1 PFK 859 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 HEX1 TPI 860 ADHEr LDH_D CBMK2 FBA HEX1 861 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K TAL TPI 862 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD TAL TPI 863 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLU5K TKT1 864 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD TKT1 TPI 865 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD PFK TKT1 866 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K PFK TAL 867 ADHEr LDH_D FBA G5SD TAL 868 ADHEr LDH_D FBA G5SD TKT1 869 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD PFK TAL 870 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K TKT1 TPI 871 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K PFK TKT1 872 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLU5K TAL 873 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K HEX1 TPI 874 ADHEr LDH_D GLU5K HEX1 PFK 875 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD HEX1 PFK 876 ADHEr LDH_D FBA G5SD HEX1 877 ADHEr LDH_D FBA GLU5K HEX1 878 ADHEr LDH_D G5SD HEX1 TPI 879 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 PFK TKT1 880 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 TKT1 TPI 881 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 PFK TAL 882 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 FBA TKT1 883 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 FBA TAL 884 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 TAL TPI 885 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 HEX1 PFK 886 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 FBA HEX1 887 ADHEr LDH_D ASNS2 HEX1 TPI 888 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 SUCOAS TKT1 889 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK SUCOAS TAL 890 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 SUCOAS TAL 891 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK SUCOAS TKT1 892 ADHEr LDH_D PYK RPE SUCD4 893 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK RPE 894 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK RPE 895 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PYK TKT2 896 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PYK TKT2 897 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS TKT2 898 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy PYK SUCD4 899 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 GLUDy PYK 900 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 GLUDy NADH6 PYK 901 ADHEr LDH_D FBA 902 ADHEr LDH_D TPI 903 ADHEr LDH_D PFK 904 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 SUCOAS 905 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK SUCOAS 906 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK SUCOAS 907 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 ME2 PGDHY PYK 908 ADHEr LDH_D EDA FRD2 ME2 PYK 909 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 ME2 PGL PYK 910 ADHEr LDH_D EDA ME2 PYK SUCD4 911 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGDHY PYK SUCD4 912 ADHEr LDH_D ME2 PGL PYK SUCD4 913 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy ME2 PYK 914 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy ME2 PYK SUCD4 915 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PGDHY PYK 916 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGL PYK SUCD4 917 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PGL PYK 918 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 MDH PGDHY PYK 919 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH PYK SUCD4 920 ADHEr LDH_D MDH NADH6 PGL PYK 921 ADHEr LDH_D EDA FRD2 MDH PYK 922 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH PYK SUCD4 923 ADHEr LDH_D MDH PGDHY PYK SUCD4 924 ADHEr LDH_D EDA MDH NADH6 PYK 925 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 G6PDHy MDH PYK 926 ADHEr LDH_D G6PDHy MDH NADH6 PYK 927 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PYK RPE 928 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PYK RPE 929 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK TAL 930 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 TKT1 931 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 TAL 932 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK TKT1 933 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK TAL 934 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK TKT1 935 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy RPE SUCOAS 936 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PYK SUCOAS 937 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PYK SUCOAS 938 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy NADH6 PYK 939 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH NADH6 PYK 940 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS TKT2 941 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS TKT2 942 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK TKT2 943 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK TKT2 944 ADHEr LDH_D FRD2 PYK 945 ADHEr LDH_D PYK SUCD4 946 ADHEr LDH_D FDH2 NADH6 PYK 947 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy TKT2 948 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS TAL 949 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS TKT1 950 ADHEr LDH_D FUM GLUDy PYK 951 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy MDH PYK 952 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts RPE SUCOAS 953 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK RPE 954 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK RPE 955 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy RPE SUCOAS 956 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy RPE 957 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK SUCOAS 958 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK SUCOAS 959 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy SUCOAS 960 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM NADH6 PYK 961 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH NADH6 PYK 962 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS TKT2 963 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts TKT2 964 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK TKT1 965 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK TAL 966 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK TAL 967 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK TKT1 968 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS TAL 969 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS TKT1 970 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy TKT2 971 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy TKT1 972 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy TAL 973 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS TKT1 974 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS TAL 975 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT MDH PYK 976 ADHEr LDH_D ASPT FUM PYK 977 ADHEr LDH_D RPE SUCOAS 978 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts RPE 979 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts SUCOAS 980 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy RPE 981 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts GLUDy 982 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy SUCOAS 983 ADHEr LDH_D TKT2 984 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts TAL 985 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts TKT1 986 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS TAL 987 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS TKT1 988 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy TKT1 989 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy TAL 990 ADHEr LDH_D RPE 991 ADHEr LDH_D GLCpts 992 ADHEr LDH_D SUCOAS 993 ADHEr LDH_D GLUDy 994 ADHEr LDH_D TAL 995 ADHEr LDH_D TKT1

TABLE 2 A list of all the reaction stoichiometries and the associated genes known to be associated with the reactions identified for disruption in the strategies listed in Tables 1. Reaction Abbreviation Reaction Name Reaction Stoichiometry Assigned Genes ACKr acetate kinase [c]: ac + atp <==> actp + adp b2296, b3115 ADHEr acetaldehyde-CoA [c]: accoa + (2) h + (2) nadh <==> coa + etoh + (2) nad b1241 dehydrogenase AKGD 2-oxoglutarate [c]: akg + coa + nad --> co2 + nadh + succoa b0727, b0726, b0116 dehydrogenase ALAR alanine racemase [c]: ala-L <==> ala-D b4053 ASNS2 asparagine synthetase [c]: asp-L + atp + nh4 --> amp + asn-L + h + ppi b3744 ASPT L-aspartase [c]: asp-L --> fum + nh4 b4139 ATPS4r ATP synthase (four protons adp[c] + (4) h[e] + pi[c] <==> atp[c] + (3) h[c] + h2o[c] b3738 + b3736 + b3737, b3739, for one ATP) b3734 + b3732 + b3735 + b3733 + b3731 CBMK2 Carbamate kinase [c]: atp + co2 + nh4 --> adp + cbp + (2) h b0323, b0521, b2874 DAAD D-Amino acid [c]: ala-D + fad + h2o --> fadh2 + nh4 + pyr b1189 dehydrogenase EDA 2-dehydro-3-deoxy- [c]: 2ddg6p --> g3p + pyr b1850 phosphogluconate aldolase FBA fructose-bisphosphate [c]: fdp <==> dhap + g3p b1773, b2097, b2925 aldolase FDH2 formate dehydrogenase for[c] + (3) h[c] + ubq8[c] --> co2[c] + (2) h[e] + ubq8h2[c] b3893 + b3894 + b3892, (quinone-8: 2 protons) b1476 + b1475 + b1474, b4079 FRD2 fumarate reductase [c]: fum + mql8 --> mqn8 + succ b4153 + b4152 + b4151 + b4154 FUM fumarase [c]: fum + h2o <==> mal-L b1612, b4122, b1611 G5SD glutamate-5-semialdehyde [c]: glu5p + h + nadph --> glu5sa + nadp + pi b0243 dehydrogenase G6PDHy glucose 6-phosphate [c]: g6p + nadp <==> 6pgl + h + nadph b1852 dehydrogenase GLCpts D-glucose transport via glc-D[e] + pep[c] --> g6p[c] + pyr[c] b1817, b1818, b2417, b1621, PEP:Pyr PTS b2416, b1819, b1101, b2415 GLU5K glutamate 5-kinase [c]: atp + glu-L --> adp + glu5p b0242 GLUDy glutamate dehydrogenase [c]: glu-L + h2o + nadp <==> akg + h + nadph + nh4 b1761 (NADP) HEX1 hexokinase (D-glucose:ATP) [c]: atp + glc-D --> adp + g6p + h b2388 ICL Isocitrate lyase [c]: icit --> glx + succ b4015 LDH_D D-lactate dehydrogenase [c]: lac-D + nad <==> h + nadh + pyr b2133, b1380 MALS malate synthase [c]: accoa + glx + h2o --> coa + h + mal-L b4014, b2976 MDH malate dehydrogenase [c]: mal-L + nad <==> h + nadh + oaa b3236 ME2 malic enzyme (NADP) [c]: mal-L + nadp --> co2 + nadph + pyr b2463 NADH12 NADH dehydrogenase [c]: h + nadh + ubq8 --> nad + ubq8h2 b1109 (ubiquinone-8) NADH6 NADH dehydrogenase (4.5) h[c] + nadh[c] + ubq8[c] --> (3.5) h[e] + nad[c] + ubq8h2[c] b2288 + b2277 + b2285 + b2278 + (ubiquinone-8 & 3.5 protons) b2276 + b2286 + b2287 + b2279 + b2280 + b2284 + b2283 + b2282 + b2281 PFK phosphofructokinase [c]: atp + f6p --> adp + fdp + h b3916, b1723 PFLi pyruvate formate lyase [c]: coa + pyr --> accoa + for b3114, b3951 + b3952, b0902 + b2579 + b0903 PGDH phosphogluconate [c]: 6pgc + nadp --> co2 + nadph + ru5p-D b2029 dehydrogenase PGDHY phosphogluconate [c]: 6pgc --> 2ddg6p + h2o b1851 dehydratase PGI glucose-6-phosphate [c]: g6p <==> f6p b4025 isomerase PGL 6-phosphogluconolactonase [c]: 6pgl + h2o --> 6pgc + h b0767 PPS phosphoenolpyruvate [c]: atp + h2o + pyr --> amp + (2) h + pep + pi b1702 synthase PRO1z proline oxidase [c]: fad + pro-L --> 1pyr5c + fadh2 + h b1014 PTAr phosphotransacetylase [c]: accoa + pi <==> actp + coa b2297 PYK pyruvate kinase [c]: adp + h + pep --> atp + pyr b1854, b1676 RPE ribulose 5-phosphate 3- [c]: ru5p-D <==> xu5p-D b4301, b3386 epimerase SUCD4 succinate dehyrdogenase [c]: fadh2 + ubq8 <==> fad + ubq8h2 b0723 + b0721 + b0724 + b0722 SUCOAS succinyl-CoA synthetase [c]: atp + coa + succ <==> adp + pi + succoa b0729 + b0728 (ADP-forming) TAL transaldolase [c]: g3p + s7p <==> e4p + f6p b2464, b0008 THD2 NAD(P) transhydrogenase (2) h[e] + nadh[c] + nadp[c] --> (2) h[c] + nad[c] + nadph[c] b1602 + b1603 TKT1 transketolase [c]: r5p + xu5p-D <==> g3p + s7p b2935, b2465 TKT2 transketolase [c]: e4p + xu5p-D <==> f6p + g3p b2935, b2465 TPI triose-phosphate isomerase [c]: dhap <==> g3p b3919

TABLE 3 List of the metabolite abbreviations, the corresponding names and locations of all the metabolites that participate in the reactions listed in Table 2. Metabolite Abbreviation Compartment Metabolite Name 1pyr5c Cytosol 1-Pyrroline-5-carboxylate 2ddg6p Cytosol 2-Dehydro-3-deoxy-D-gluconate 6-phosphate 6pgc Cytosol 6-Phospho-D-gluconate 6pgl Cytosol 6-phospho-D-glucono-1,5-lactone ac Cytosol Acetate accoa Cytosol Acetyl-CoA actp Cytosol Acetyl phosphate adp Cytosol ADP akg Cytosol 2-Oxoglutarate ala-D Cytosol D-Alanine ala-L Cytosol L-Alanine amp Cytosol AMP asn-L Cytosol L-Asparagine asp-L Cytosol L-Aspartate atp Cytosol ATP cbp Cytosol Carbamoyl phosphate cit Cytosol Citrate co2 Cytosol CO2 coa Cytosol Coenzyme A ctp Cytosol CTP dha Cytosol Dihydroxyacetone dhap Cytosol Dihydroxyacetone phosphate e4p Cytosol D-Erythrose 4-phosphate etoh Cytosol Ethanol f6p Cytosol D-Fructose 6-phosphate fad Cytosol FAD fadh2 Cytosol FADH2 fdp Cytosol D-Fructose 1,6-bisphosphate for Cytosol Formate fum Cytosol Fumarate g3p Cytosol Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate g6p Cytosol D-Glucose 6-phosphate glc-D Cytosol D-Glucose glc-D[e] Extra-organism D-Glucose glu5p Cytosol L-Glutamate 5-phosphate glu5sa Cytosol L-Glutamate 5-semialdehyde glu-L Cytosol L-Glutamate glx Cytosol Glyoxylate h Cytosol H+ h[e] Extra-organism H+ h2 Cytosol H2 h2o Cytosol H2O icit Cytosol Isocitrate k Cytosol K+ lac-D Cytosol D-Lactate mal-L Cytosol L-Malate mql8 Cytosol Menaquinol 8 mqn8 Cytosol Menaquinone 8 nad Cytosol Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide nadh Cytosol Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide - reduced nadp Cytosol Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate nadph Cytosol Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate - reduced nh4 Cytosol Ammonium o2 Cytosol O2 oaa Cytosol Oxaloacetate pep Cytosol Phosphoenolpyruvate pi Cytosol Phosphate ppi Cytosol Diphosphate pro-L Cytosol L-Proline pyr Cytosol Pyruvate r5p Cytosol alpha-D-Ribose 5-phosphate ru5p-D Cytosol D-Ribulose 5-phosphate s7p Cytosol Sedoheptulose 7-phosphate succ Cytosol Succinate succoa Cytosol Succinyl-CoA ubq8 Cytosol Ubiquinone-8 ubq8h2 Cytosol Ubiquinol-8 xu5p-D Cytosol D-Xylulose 5-phosphate

Although the invention has been described with reference to the disclosed embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the specific examples and studies detailed above are only illustrative of the invention. It should be understood that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is limited only by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A non-naturally occurring microbial organism, comprising a microbial organism having a malonyl-CoA-independent fatty acid synthesis (FAS) pathway and an acyl-reduction pathway comprising at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme expressed in sufficient amounts to produce a primary alcohol, said malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway comprising ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase, said acyl-reduction pathway comprising an acyl-CoA reductase and an alcohol dehydrogenase, wherein said ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase or ketoacyl-CoA thiolase converts acyl-CoA to β-ketoacyl-CoA, wherein said 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase converts β-ketoacyl-CoA to β-hydroxyacyl-CoA, wherein said enoyl-CoA hydratase converts β-hydroxyacyl-CoA to trans-2-enoyl-CoA, wherein said enoyl-CoA reductase converts trans-2-enoyl-CoA to acyl-CoA, wherein said acyl-CoA reductase converts acyl-CoA to an aldehyde, wherein said alcohol dehydrogenase converts an aldehyde to said primary alcohol, wherein said microbial organism further comprises one or more gene disruptions, said one or more gene disruptions occurring in genes encoding enzymes that couple primary alcohol production to growth of said non-naturally occurring microbial organism when said gene disruption reduces an activity of said enzyme, whereby said one or more gene disruptions confers production of primary alcohols onto said non-naturally occurring microbial organism.
 2. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said microbial organism comprises two exogenous nucleic acid each encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme.
 3. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said microbial organism comprises three exogenous nucleic acid each encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme.
 4. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said microbial organism comprises four exogenous nucleic acid each encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme.
 5. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 4, wherein said four exogenous nucleic acids encode ketoacyl-CoA acyltransferase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase.
 6. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 4, wherein said four exogenous nucleic acids encode ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, enoyl-CoA hydratase and enoyl-CoA reductase.
 7. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said microbial organism comprises at least one exogenous nucleic acid encoding an acyl-reduction pathway enzyme.
 8. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 7, wherein said exogenous nucleic acid encoding an acyl-reduction pathway enzyme comprises an acyl-CoA reductase.
 9. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 7, wherein said exogenous nucleic acid encoding an acyl-reduction pathway enzyme comprises an alcohol dehydrogenase.
 10. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 7, wherein said exogenous nucleic acid encoding an acyl-reduction pathway enzyme comprises an enzyme having acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase activity.
 11. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 10, wherein said enzyme having acyl-CoA reductase and alcohol dehydrogenase activity comprises fatty alcohol forming acyl-CoA reductase (FAR).
 12. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said at least one exogenous nucleic acid further comprises a heterologous encoding nucleic acid.
 13. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said primary alcohol is produced in amounts at least 10% greater levels compared to a microbial organism lacking said exogenous nucleic acid encoding a malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzyme.
 14. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, further comprising a substantially anaerobic culture medium.
 15. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said primary alcohol comprises an alcohol having between 4-24 carbon atoms.
 16. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 15, wherein said alcohol having between 4-24 carbon atoms is selected from butanol, hexanol, heptanol, octanol, nonanol, decanol, dodecanol, tetradecanol or hexadecanol.
 17. A method for producing a primary alcohol, comprising culturing a non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1 under conditions and for a sufficient period of time to produce said primary alcohol.
 18. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said one or more gene disruptions comprise a deletion of a negative regulatory effector of one or more malonyl-CoA-independent FAS pathway enzymes.
 19. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said one or more gene disruptions comprises a deletion of said one or more genes.
 20. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said one or more gene disruptions encode enzymes selected from the group consisting of an acetaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase and a lactate dehydrogenase.
 21. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 20, wherein said one or more gene disruptions further comprise encoded enzymes selected from the group consisting of a pyruvate formate lyase, a phosphotransacetylase, an acetate kinase, a fumarate reductase, a fumarase, and a malate dehydrogenase.
 22. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 21, wherein said one or more gene disruptions further comprise encoded enzymes selected from the group consisting of a glutamate dehydrogenase, a NAD(P) transhydrogenase, and an ATP synthase.
 23. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said one or more gene disruptions comprise: (1) acetylaldehyde-CoA dehydrogenase (ADHEr), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH_D), L-aspartase (ASPT), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), pyruvate formate lyase (PFLi), phosphogluconate dehydratase (PGDHY), pyruvate kinase (PYK,) and dihydroxyacetone phosphotransferase (DHAPT); (2) ADHEr, LDH_D, ASPT, MDH, PFLi, 6-phosphogluconolactonase (PGL), PYK, and DHAPT; (3) ADHEr, LDH_D, ASPT, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDHy), MDH, PFLi, PYK, and DHAPT; (4) ADHEr, LDH_D, ASPT, 2-dehydro-3-deoxy-phosphogluconate aldolase (EDA), MDH, PFLi, PYK, and DHAPT; (5) ADHEr, LDH_D, D-glucose transport via PEP:Pyr PTS (GLCpts), glutamate dehydrogenase (GLUDy), phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (PGDH), glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (PGI), and phosphotransacetylase (PTAr); (6) ADHEr, LDH_D, acetate kinase (ACKr), GLCpts, GLUDy, PGDH, and PGI; (7) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, PTAr, and transaldolase (TAL); (8) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, PTAr, and transketolase (TKT1); (9) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, TKT1; (10) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, and TAL; (11) ADHEr, LDH_D, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA), GLCpts, GLUDy, and PTAr; (12) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, PTAr, and triose-phosphate isomerase (TPI);TPI; (13) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, and TPI; (14) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, phosphofructokinase (PFK), and PTAr; (15) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, FBA, GLCpts, and GLUDy; (16) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, and PFK; (17) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, and ribulose 5-phosphate 3-epimerase (RPE); (18) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, PTAr, RPE; (19) ADHEr, LDH_D, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, PTAr, and transketolase (TKT2); (20) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, GLUDy, PGI, and TKT2; or (21) ADHEr, LDH_D, ACKr, GLCpts, PGDH, PGI.
 24. The non-naturally occurring microbial organism of claim 1, wherein said one or more gene disruptions occurring in genes that encode enzymes selected from the group consisting of a cytosolic pyruvate decarboxylase, a mitochondrial pyruvate dehydrogenase, a cytosolic ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase and a mitochondrial ethanol-specific alcohol dehydrogenase.
 25. The organism of claim 24, further comprising one or more gene disruptions encoding an enzyme selected from the group consisting of a cytosolic malate dehydrogenase, a glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase shuttle, an external NADH dehydrogenase, and an internal mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase.
 26. The organism of claim 24, further comprising an exogenous nucleic acid encoding an enzyme in the cytosol selected from the group consisting of an acetyl-CoA synthetase (AMP-forming), an ADP-dependent acetate-CoA ligase, an acylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, a pyruvate dehydrogenase, a pyruvate:NADP oxidoreductase, and a pyruvate formate lyase; or a gene regulatory region thereof.
 27. The organism of claim 26, further comprising an exogenous nucleic acid encoding a cytosolic transhydrogenase or a gene regulatory region thereof. 